The ex-wife of Ohio Rep. Max Miller has sued the congressman and his attorney in federal court, alleging they exposed a nude image of the couple's two-year-old daughter to more than 400,000 people online.
Emily Moreno filed the lawsuit Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, naming both Miller and his lawyer Aaron Minc as defendants. The suit alleges Miller "recklessly and intentionally" handed the photo to Minc as part of a batch of documents and images, and that Minc then assembled those files into a publicly accessible Dropbox folder. Miller posted a link to that folder on X, formerly Twitter, after hosting a livestream in which he defended himself against domestic abuse allegations brought by Moreno.
The lawsuit claims Moreno never gave Miller or Minc permission to publish the images. It seeks $150,000 in liquidated damages for each time the child's image was downloaded, and asks a judge to find that both defendants violated Ohio state and federal laws.
The complaint, a copy of which was obtained by The Hill, paints a grim picture of what happened after Miller shared the Dropbox link publicly. Moreno's suit alleges more than 400,000 people accessed the folder. Neither Miller nor Minc has disclosed how many of those users viewed or downloaded the specific image of the child.
The lawsuit states plainly: "But despite repeated requests from Ms. Moreno's counsel, Defendants have refused to provide information about how many times Defendants disclosed and transferred the intimate image to viewers who accessed, viewed or downloaded the intimate image. Nor will Defendants answer questions about who might have accessed, viewed or downloaded the image."
Subodh Chandra, Moreno's attorney, framed the case in stark terms. The New York Post reported his statement:
"In a desperate attempt to keep his job and attack his ex-wife, the suit alleges, Congressman Max Miller and his attorney Aaron Minc engaged in incomprehensible recklessness by blasting to hundreds of thousands of people on the internet a nude photo showing this helpless two-year-old girl's genitalia."
Chandra added: "This child is an entirely innocent victim who has become collateral damage to her father's political ambition."
Miller has not accepted personal responsibility for the image's publication. In a CNN interview earlier this month, anchor Jake Tapper pressed him on the incident, characterizing it as "shockingly reckless behavior." Miller pushed back.
"I wouldn't say that it's shockingly reckless," Miller told Tapper. He said his attorney "took full responsibility" and expressed "the utmost confidence that my constituents back home know me."
In a separate statement, Miller acknowledged the situation was regrettable. "My attorney took full responsibility. I believe that it's awful. There was never any intent to do that," the Washington Examiner reported him saying.
Minc, for his part, told Politico he was the "only person responsible for assembling, creating, reviewing, adding, deleting, redacting, or making any changes to the information and files that were in this folder." He called the release "completely unintentional and a mistake."
But the lawsuit directly challenges that defense. It alleges Miller gave the photo to Minc "to salvage his political job", meaning the decision to hand over the material was deliberate, even if the specific inclusion of the nude image was not reviewed. The complaint argues that no reasonable parent would have allowed such files to be dumped onto the public internet without checking them first.
The lawsuit puts it this way: "Miller's recklessness is underscored by the fact that any parent knows, in this era and world filled with pedophiles, creeps, and AI-generated image alteration and video generation, not to put nude pictures of their child, or any child, on the public internet."
The fallout has reached the U.S. Senate. Sen. Bernie Moreno, the Ohio Republican who is Emily Moreno's father and the child's grandfather, has publicly called on Miller to drop out of his reelection race or resign from Congress. The senator's public break with his former son-in-law marks a sharp escalation within the Ohio Republican delegation.
Moreno did not mince words when speaking to reporters:
"When he went out and did what he did, including releasing photos of my granddaughter completely naked, that now you have hundreds of thousands of psychotic human beings that have that, and to say 'oops' is grotesque. My personal opinion is that this is a felony, and that every single human being that touched that photo and transmitted it electronically should go to jail because it is illegal to do that."
Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana has also weighed in, calling the allegations against Miller "deeply troubling", making him one of the latest members of Congress to react publicly.
The nude-photo lawsuit lands on top of a growing pile of accusations. Moreno has alleged that Miller threw scalding water at her, held a gun to her head, and may have broken their daughter's collarbone. Miller has vehemently and repeatedly denied the domestic abuse claims.
Earlier this month, the House Ethics Committee launched a probe into Miller after he filed paperwork requesting that the panel investigate him. The committee said it was reviewing allegations of domestic violence and abuse and illegal drug use.
Miller's decision to invite the Ethics review may have been designed to project transparency. But the lawsuit filed Wednesday suggests Moreno's legal team views that gesture as insufficient, and intends to press the case in federal court, where discovery rules could force disclosure of exactly how many people accessed the child's image.
The domestic abuse allegations also carry an uncomfortable historical echo. AP News reported that Miller previously filed a defamation lawsuit against ex-girlfriend Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary, over similar abuse claims. Miller voluntarily dismissed that suit just before trial in August 2023. Moreno's spokesperson, Stefan Mychajliw, drew a direct line between the two episodes: "Mr. Miller is upset because he's tried to silence Emily Moreno the same way he silenced Stephanie Grisham, and Emily won't let him."
Miller has since filed his own defamation lawsuit against Moreno in Cleveland, citing "considerable reputational and financial harm" from her accusations. Moreno's camp says she has photographs of bruises and burns to support her claims.
Despite the lawsuit, the Ethics probe, and calls from fellow Republicans to step aside, Miller has vowed to remain in his reelection race. He told CNN he has no plans to withdraw.
The Hill reached out to Miller's campaign for comment on the new lawsuit. No response was reported. The case now sits in federal court, where it could produce further disclosures about the Dropbox folder and the extent of the child's exposure.
The broader pattern of misconduct allegations within the House Republican conference has already prompted Speaker Johnson to push for stricter conduct rules governing members of Congress. Miller's case, involving a sitting congressman, a nude image of a toddler, and an unresolved domestic abuse dispute, tests whether the party's stated commitment to accountability will extend to one of its own.
Fox News reported that the Dropbox folder was part of hundreds of pages of files Miller's legal team shared publicly on social media as a defense against Moreno's abuse claims, a strategy that now faces scrutiny not just for its recklessness, but for its potential legal consequences under federal civil-rights law.
A party that asks voters to trust it with the country's laws ought to hold its own members to the same standard, especially when a child's safety is the cost of political self-preservation.
