A Trump-backed congressman accused in court of beating his ex-wife launched into an X-rated outburst at her lawyers during an extraordinary two-hour deposition, video exclusively obtained by the Daily Mail shows.
Ohio Republican Max Miller, 37, is locked in a bitter custody dispute with his ex-wife Emily Moreno, 32, over their two-year-old daughter.
Miller filed for divorce on their second wedding anniversary in August 2024, two months after Moreno claims he hurled scalding water at her. She has also accused him of holding a gun to her head during their marriage and hitting her during a custody exchange, according to court documents. He denies all of the allegations.
The feud has split the GOP. Moreno is the daughter of Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno, who has called on Miller to resign and seek ‘serious psychological help.’ Donald Trump, who attended the couple’s 2022 wedding at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, has stood by Miller, calling him ‘a good person’ while declining to weigh in on the allegations.
Miller sat for the deposition in downtown Cleveland on September 28, as the two sides prepare for a trial over who should raise the child. He was joined by his own lawyers and by Moreno’s. His ex-wife was not present.
The Daily Mail obtained the video of the full deposition, along with the redacted deposition transcript entered in court in Ohio. The redacted information is not being published here.Â
The 37-year-old at times bristled with anger and at others laughed with contempt as he was grilled over allegations that he lied to police and vulgar remarks he allegedly made in front of his ex-wife shortly after she gave birth.
Miller is alleged to have said that watching Moreno give birth to their daughter was ‘like watching the playground get set on fire.’ He denied the claim, insisting that the remark had been made by a nurse.
The Daily Mail obtained video of the deposition in addition to the redacted deposition transcript that was entered in court in Ohio
Miller filed for divorce on their second wedding anniversary in August 2024, two months after Moreno claims he hurled scalding water at her. She has also accused him of holding a gun to her head during their marriage and hitting her during a custody exchange. He denies all of the allegations
In another response, Miller claimed that one of Moreno’s attorneys had said his new ‘girlfriend was good at sucking c***.’Â
Miller then attacked the lawyer’s fiancée, claiming he was merely retaliating to the insult before his own attorneys cut him off.
The congressman also conceded that a sworn statement he gave a court about his new girlfriend was untrue, and said he doesn’t control his own X account that posted a link to a photo of his two-year-old daughter without clothes on.
In August, a trove of documents posted from his X account after a livestream included a naked photo of his toddler, which stayed online for about 23 hours and is now the subject of a federal lawsuit by his ex-wife.
Miller’s lawyer took the blame for putting the ‘intimate’ photo of the toddler on the internet.Â
The deposition comes a month before Miller faces voters in Ohio’s 7th District, a seat Trump carried by about 11 points in 2024 that Democrats are now targeting.
Miller’s personal turmoil has turned a safe red seat into one of the most closely watched races in the country. Forecasters moved it from solid Republican in May to a toss-up in August, and the last public polls showed him trailing his Democratic opponent.
His Democratic opponent is Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker and local city councilman. Ohio’s other Republican senator, Jon Husted, has joined Moreno in calling on Miller to drop out.
Miller stayed in the race past an August deadline to be replaced on the ballot, telling the New York Times: ‘Take a hike. After I win by more than my district, don’t bother ever contacting me again.’
The House Ethics Committee announced on August 4 that it is investigating the domestic violence and drug allegations against him, which he has denied, after Miller himself asked for a probe to ‘clear my name.’
The Daily Mail first reported on Moreno’s abuse allegations against Miller back in May after obtaining photos showing bruises
Moreno accused Miller of throwing scalding water on her during a heated argument in 2024. He has denied that accusation
Donald Trump, who attended the couple’s 2022 wedding at his Bedminster club, has stood by Miller, calling him ‘a good person’ while declining to weigh in on the allegations
Oral sex insult
The most explosive moment of the taped deposition came when Miller was asked about remarks he had made to his ex-wife’s legal team.
Moreno’s attorney Brooke Meneses asked whether Miller had told her co-counsel, Andrew Zashin, that Zashin’s fiancée was ‘not much of a looker.’
Miller claimed his remark was a response to something Zashin had said first: ‘[Zashin] said that my girlfriend was good at sucking c***.’
‘I responded to him and said that his girlfriend is a two-bit…’ Miller went on, before Meneses cut him off with a reminder that it was a ‘yes or no’ question.
‘You guys are savages, and this has been nothing more than that,’ he told her.
The lawyers traded barbs of their own earlier in the session, with Miller’s attorney Larry Zukerman dismissing Zashin as a ‘funny little man.’
‘No one’s funnier than filing bogus domestic violence,’ Zashin shot back, an apparent reference to the protection order petition Miller filed against Moreno in February.
Miller, who can be seen smiling and chuckling during the exchange, cut in: ‘It worked just fine, actually.’
In one outburst, Miller claimed that one of Moreno’s attorneys had said his new ‘girlfriend was good at sucking c***’
Syringe confrontation
During the deposition, Miller was also presented with a photograph that appears to show a syringe that a source said was in the bedroom he shared with his ex-wife, first published by the Daily Mail.
He replied by saying he did not recognize it.
Asked whether Moreno had confronted him about it, he said: ‘No, she never confronted me about it,’ despite recordings he released in July in which she raised finding needles by his bed.
Moreno has not publicly responded to those claims, but her father has said he holds his breath ‘every minute he has custody of my granddaughter.’Â
In August, the Daily Mail published a photo of a syringe that a source said appeared to be taken in his bedroom, along with an image of him holding a bag of high-potency cannabis gummies.
There is no proof Miller consumed the gummies, that they were his, or that the photographed syringe was his or what it contained.Â
He also acknowledged in the deposition that he previously took testosterone, which he said he obtained through an online service that sends customers a blood test kit and then ‘they send you a prescription for testosterone.’
Asked which doctor prescribed it, he said he did not know, because ‘when you go online’ there are ‘a bunch of them,’ though he insisted it was legal and that he stopped two years ago.
Miller denied ever using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.
This image appears to have been taken by Emily Moreno inside the home she shared with Miller, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Mail in AugustÂ
Miller can be seen in another image obtained by the Daily Mail smiling while holding a bag of high-potency marijuana gummies toward the camera, each containing 15 times the legal California limitÂ
The ‘fog of war’ admissionÂ
In a sworn statement filed on February 27, Miller said his now-girlfriend, was ‘present inside my home during the entire custody exchange’ on February 1, when Moreno alleges he assaulted her.
He told a court hearing the same day that ‘she was looking through the window to make sure.’
Pressed on whether his girlfriend was in the house, Miller conceded: ‘She wasn’t there.’
He said the account was corrected with police ‘within four hours,’ but said he did not know whether the court filing was ever amended.
Meneses then raised a second statement to authorities: Miller’s account of a June 19, 2025 confrontation on Interstate 90, in which he said a man in a black Tesla forced him off the road and threatened him while displaying a Palestinian flag.
Miller initially told police the driver had thrown the flag out of his window, but later amended his account to say the man had shown it.
‘Fog of war is tough, and you know that,’ he said.
‘People are human; they make mistakes and then they course correct them as fast as they can, and that’s what I did,’ Miller replied.
The driver, Feras Hamdan, pleaded guilty in February to reckless driving, disorderly conduct and obstructing official business. Hamdan and Miller are currently suing each other.
Miller and Moreno are locked in a bitter custody fight over their two-year-old daughter
‘I don’t control my Twitter’
Miller repeatedly distanced himself from his own verified X account, which shared the Dropbox link after his August 2 livestream.
‘I don’t control my Twitter,’ he said, adding that it is ‘not a full-time job for a member of Congress to be overseeing’ and is ‘for people who want drama.’
He agreed the Dropbox contained photos of his daughter. Asked if any showed her without clothes on, he answered: ‘I don’t know.’
However, in August, his attorney Aaron Minc took responsibility for including the photo, and Miller told CNN’s Jake Tapper: ‘I’m not defending it. It’s awful.’
Even then he insisted the image had been ‘taken very much out of context,’ prompting Tapper to call it ‘shockingly reckless behavior by you and your team.’
Moreno sued Miller and Minc in federal court on August 12, alleging they ‘recklessly published and distributed an image exposing the child’s genitalia’ and noting that posts directing people to the folder drew more than 400,000 views.
‘I’m not responsible for it,’ Miller said in the deposition, though he confirmed he had authorized Minc to post the link.
When Zashin pressed for a yes or no answer, Miller told him: ‘Dude, go grab a drink.’
He took the same line over a post from his account about a blue stuffed bunny his daughter left at his home in August. The post said Miller was ‘waiting for you, Bernie Moreno, like we agreed upon.’ Miller insisted he did not write it.
He confirmed he refused to hand the toy to a Moreno family friend who offered to collect it. Asked whether he could have simply taken it to his daughter, he said: ‘I wasn’t asked to.’
As Miller’s personal turmoil turned a safe red seat into one of the most closely watched in the country, the race moved from solid Republican in May to a toss-up in August
Miller is alleged to have said that watching Moreno give birth to their daughter was ‘like watching the playground get set on fire.’ He denied the claim, insisting that the remark had been made by a nurse
Vulgar birth comments and t-shirt
The vulgar birth remark came up early in the deposition, when Meneses asked whether Miller had told Moreno and others that her giving birth was ‘like watching the playground get set on fire.’ His attorney Pamela MacAdams tried to object, but Miller wouldn’t let her finish.
‘The nurse said that, though,’ Miller interrupted, denying he ever made the vulgar comment.
‘And Emily said that I did,’ he insisted.Â
‘Let me finish my objection,’ MacAdams said. The video shows her shrugging, smiling and sighing before glancing toward Miller’s other attorney.
Miller ultimately denied making the comment, saying of his interruption: ‘That was so silly I had to.’
Shown a photo of his girlfriend wearing a shirt reading ‘throat goat,’ a joke referring to oral sex, he first called it funny before turning on the lawyers: ‘This is so sadistic.’
Minutes earlier, he had called her a role model for his daughter and ‘a self-made woman.’
The deposition ended abruptly after MacAdams instructed Miller not to answer whether he pushed someone down the stairs in high school
‘Take it up with the judge’Â
Miller later admitted he agreed to key terms of the couple’s parenting plan ‘unknowingly,’ telling Meneses: ‘I didn’t know that this was in there and that I gave up that much power.’
He agreed under questioning that Moreno is a good parent.
The deposition ended abruptly after MacAdams instructed Miller not to answer whether he pushed someone down the stairs in high school.
‘It predates December 18th of [2025],’ Miller shot back before his lawyer intervened: ‘Max, I got it.’
‘Take it up with the judge,’ Miller added. Moreno’s lawyers said they would not conclude the deposition and would file motions to compel.
‘That was it? See you,’ Miller said as the session broke up.
Miller has sued Moreno and Zashin for defamation over her allegations. Moreno and Zashin have moved to dismiss the suit under Ohio’s new anti-SLAPP law, arguing the allegations are true and that Miller is using the courts to silence his ex-wife.
The Daily Mail has contacted legal teams for both Miller and Moreno for comment.
