Ex-Trump Aide Files Restraining Order Against Accused Wife-Beater Rep

Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham filed a temporary restraining order against Rep. Max Miller of Ohio on Monday, her attorney announced, as the two-term Republican faces mounting calls to resign over domestic abuse allegations from his ex-wife.

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The filing lands just as Republican senators finally find their voice on an alleged wife-beater sitting in their own conference, after two years of near-total silence. Senator Bernie Moreno broke ranks over the weekend, demanding that his former son-in-law quit Congress over claims he abused Moreno’s daughter, Emily, and the couple’s 2-year-old daughter. Miller denies the claims.

It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted Grisham’s restraining order, given that her relationship with Miller ended years ago. The two dated in 2019 and 2020, and have been locked in a separate legal fight since Grisham published a 2021 Washington Post op-ed describing an abusive relationship with a boyfriend who was, at the time, a White House staffer.

She didn’t name him, but Miller sued her for defamation within hours of publication and denied any abuse while running for a House seat in Ohio’s 16th congressional District.

He later dropped the suit, and both parties signed a nondisclosure agreement barring disparaging remarks about each other, according to court documents obtained by the Ohio Capital Journal.

Grisham sued Miller again earlier this month, alleging he broke that agreement by publicly denying her allegations in a June interview with Spectrum News.

“Without question, every allegation should be taken seriously,” Miller said in that interview, before adding that his ex-wife “was with me every single day during that time of my life in that election, and she, in her own words, will tell you that I never did any of those things.”

A 2021 investigation by Politico interviewed 60 people close to Miller. Sources told the publication that Miller’s relationship with Grisham ended after he got physical with her, allegedly pushing her against a wall and slapping her following an argument about infidelity at his Washington apartment.

Grisham corroborated that account in a later book. Miller has always denied it. “The settlement included certain promises that Congressman Miller made to our client Stephanie Grisham, and those promises were broken,” Grisham’s lawyer, Marc Dann, told the Journal.

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Emily Moreno’s own allegations are far more severe. In police reports, she claims Miller, 37, threw her against a wall, held a gun to her head, threw hot water on her, and broke their daughter’s collarbone.

Miller denies all of it and is suing his ex-wife for defamation. “He should not serve in the House of Representatives,” Senator Moreno, Emily’s father, wrote on X on Sunday.

“I believe Max Miller needs to seek professional help to end the clear pattern of abuse he has left in his wake. I believe he should not be free to continue endangering others until he does.”

Until that post, Moreno’s office had stuck to a statement that he “will not litigate these matters in the media or respond to baseless public attacks,” a silence that broke only after Miller went on a 20-minute livestream on X denying the claims and accusing his ex-wife of mental health issues and lying during their custody battle.

President Trump, asked about the situation Monday, offered little in the way of condemnation. “I always thought he was a very good person, and I’m going to let the families figure that out,” he told reporters.

Axios separately reported that Trump had phoned Miller to flag concerns about his flagging re-election bid, telling the embattled congressman that “things aren’t looking good.”

Miller is up against Democratic candidate Brian Poindexter to keep his Cleveland-area House seat. He has until Wednesday to withdraw from the ballot and allow a primary to select a replacement. However, he appears to be digging in.