Embattled Rep. Max Miller’s ex-wife, Emily Moreno, filed a lawsuit against the Ohio Republican Wednesday alleging he and his lawyer “recklessly published and disclosed to the world a nude image” of their two-year-old daughter.
The complaint, filed in a federal court in Ohio, argues that Miller and his lawyer, Aaron Minc, violated federal laws on the “disclosure of intimate images” when the congressman shared a link to an electronic Dropbox folder which included a photograph of the young child “depicting her genitalia” among a trove of documents.
Moreno contends her daughter “is entitled to $150,000 in liquidated damages for each time her image was downloaded from Minc’s and Miller’s public Dropbox,” along with “reasonable attorney fees and other litigation costs.”
It’s unclear how many times the image was downloaded.
“This child is an entirely innocent victim who has become collateral damage to her father’s political ambition,” Subodh Chandra, Moreno’s lawyer, said in a 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 continued. “Any parent — and any lawyer — knows the grave danger of posting nude photos of a toddler on the public web for pedophiles and bad actors to download.
“They victimized an innocent child to score political points, and we intend to hold them fully accountable under federal and state law.”
Last week, Minc acknowledged that he inadvertently included an image of Moreno and Miller’s daughter with “her shirt off” but was adamant, in an interview with Politico, that “there were no images of ‘genitals.’”
In a separate statement, Minc said he is “solely responsible for what happened.”
“I 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.”
Minc stressed that including the photo was “completely unintentional and a mistake.”
Miller made the files public during a Aug. 2 livestream on X during which he strenuously denied abusing his ex-wife or their child.
Moreno has accused Miller of shoving her, dumping hot water on her, and holding a gun to her head. The case record also includes a police report which describes Moreno raising concerns about her daughter’s broken collarbone and “what appeared to be a handprint bruise” on her shoulder.
Miller has faced calls to end his re-election bid and resign from the House of Representative in light of the allegations.
His ex-wife’s father, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), has called on Miller to get psychological help and argued that he was unfit to be a member of Congress.
Miller’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
