Rep. Max Miller, who has been accused of abusing his ex-wife, is now suing her for defamation — a major escalation in an ongoing public dispute between the two-term Ohio Republican and the daughter of Ohio GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno.

In a copy of the complaint filed Wednesday evening in Cuyahoga County, Ohio and reviewed by Blue Light News, Miller claims that his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, and her legal team made “false, malicious, and defamatory statements wrongly accusing [him] of being a violent and abusive husband and father.”

Miller, who shares a child with Emily Moreno, is also suing her legal team and maintained that conflicts with his former partner were, in part, the result of what the complaint describes as her mental health challenges. The lawmaker is seeking no less than $25,000 in damages.

According to Miller’s complaint, Emily Moreno and her legal team “engaged in a defamatory campaign against [Miller] to malign his character, undermine his odds at re-election to Congress, and falsely portray him as a violent and abusive father and husband” during the course of custody proceedings around the former couple’s daughter.

Earlier this month, the Daily Mail reported that Miller was battling domestic violence allegations from his now ex-wife. The article included accusations that Miller threw boiling water at Emily Moreno in front of their child and published photographs of what appeared to be injuries that she sustained from the alleged abuse. Other news outlets have also written about these allegations.

Miller quickly took to social media, calling the Daily Mail reports “nothing but lies.” He also accused first-term Sen. Moreno of funding “his daughter’s malicious campaign to ruin [his] life despite his knowledge of her mental health issues.”

“Bernie, this must be distracting from your job,” Miller wrote on X. “These antics harm your own grandchild. Anytime you want to put a stop to this, you can.”

Andrew Zashin, an attorney for Emily Moreno, declined to comment and referred the matter to his own lawyer. That lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokesperson for the senator also had no comment.

Now, Miller is insisting the allegations of misconduct have cost him “actual damages in the form of lost business opportunities, reduced campaign contributions to aid his reelection campaign to Congress, and other pecuniary harms that will be quantified in an amount to be proven at trial,” according to the complaint.

“Congressman Miller is seeking to hold those responsible accountable and to obtain damages for the significant personal, professional, and political harm that he has suffered,” said a Miller spokesperson in a statement, adding that the lawmaker was pursuing the lawsuit to “defend his reputation.”

Unrelated, Miller has also been accused of slapping another former romantic partner — a separate claim he denied through an attorney.

Miller is coming under the microscope amid a renewed reckoning on Capitol Hill over lawmakers’ unethical behavior, which has put significant pressure on members of both parties to quickly root out bad actors inside their ranks.

In the House, it has led to the resignation of three members over the course of five weeks. Former Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) resigned over accusations of sexual assault and an inappropriate relationship with a staffer, respectively. Swalwell has publicly apologized for his “mistakes in judgment” but vowed to fight what he called “false allegations” and Gonzales had denied wrongdoing but ultimately admitted to the affair.

Former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.), meanwhile, stepped down rather than face a likely expulsion vote after the House Ethics Committee found she illicitly funneled money to support her campaign — charges she has refuted.

Other lawmakers under scrutiny include Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) who is accused of various misdeeds including threatening to release a former girlfriend’s explicit videos. In an apparent effort to show they were taking the case seriously, leadership of the bipartisan Ethics Committee announced Monday in a highly unusual statement that it had already pursued several steps to aggressively investigate the allegations, including approving 20 subpoenas. He has denied wrongdoing.

The Ethics panel is also pursuing a case against Rep. Chuck Edwards over allegations of sexual harassment and an improper relationship with staff. The North Carolina Republican has said the “baseless allegations [are] designed to impact the campaign driven by those who want to settle old political scores.” But some of his Republican peers who helped force Swalwell and Gonzales out of Congress have indicated they could try to force accountability in Edwards’ case, too.

Democrats are ready to play hardball after a stunning series of redistricting losses that could kneecap the party’s power in Congress for years to come.

“We’re going to win in November, and then we’re going to crush their souls as it relates to the extremism that they are trying to unleash on the American people,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday.

Jeffries will hold a caucus-wide meeting Thursday morning with House Administration’s top Democrat Joe Morelle to discuss next steps on the party’s election security strategy.

The mid-decade map redrawing war marks a reversal from years of high-minded Democratic rhetoric that included advocating for independent redistricting commissions, campaign finance curbs and more. Democratic leaders are now openly discussing overriding those safeguards as Republicans use the courts and their control of state governments to consolidate and enhance their own party’s power.

Democrats’ call to action comes after the Supreme Court’s April decision to slash the Voting Rights Act, kicking off a GOP mad dash to crack majority Black, safe Democratic seats in the South. The Virginia Supreme Court’s rejection of a map last week that would’ve given Dems four new seats this year dealt another blow.

Jeffries and fellow Democratic leaders laid out an ambitious plan this week to redistrict before the 2028 elections in states like New York, New Jersey, Colorado, Oregon and Washington where their party currently holds power but cannot immediately redraw House lines.

But opportunities to redistrict in 2026 are running dry for the party, except for a potential last-ditch pick-up in Maryland, where Democrats want to eliminate Rep. Andy Harris’ district even with the state’s primary two weeks away and mail-in ballots already issued.

Prominent Democrats are heavily pressuring state Senate President Bill Ferguson to move for a map redraw now after preventing the party from trying to draw an 8-0 map months ago, Gregory Svirnovskiy reports. Ferguson’s spokesperson Wednesday said the leader told Maryland’s governor he’s “open to a conversation about next steps.”

“At this point, the Republicans are literally doing everything in their power to create all Republican congressional delegations in the South and to squeeze out every possible seat,” Rep. Jamie Raskin told Blue Light News in an interview. “So if [Ferguson’s] initial position was that he didn’t want to be part of continuing a downward spiral, that consideration should be gone.”

The party’s anger also translates to a growing appetite to remake the Supreme Court, which many House Democrats say is ushering in an era of “Jim Crow 2.0.”

Rep. Johnny Olszewski, who has introduced legislation to term-limit the justices, said in an interview that the VRA ruling was “a straw that broke the camel’s back.” And Rep. Sean Casten said there are tools to “kneecap” the Supreme Court that Congress has never used, such as stripping their power to review lower court rulings.

“I think everybody from the top of our caucus to the bottom are saying we have got to push back on them,” Casten said.

— SURVEY SAYS: Separately, new results from a Blue Light News Poll show many Democratic voters want their party leaders to fight back hard — even if it means breaking up districts designed to protect the power of Black voters and other minority communities. Read the results here.

What else we’re watching: 

— SENATE GOP COOL ON SUMMER RECONCILIATION 3.0 PLAN: Senate Republicans aren’t sold yet on their House counterparts’ plan to finish a third party-line spending package before summer recess. “We’re still working on reconciliation 2.0,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday when asked if his chamber was also planning a pre-recess timeline for a third bill.

— HOUSING BILL COMES TO HOUSE FLOOR: House GOP leadership is planning to put an amended housing bill up for a fast-track floor vote next week, despite President Donald Trump’s calls for the chamber to pass the Senate’s version as-is. Senior House lawmakers late Wednesday reached a bipartisan deal and released bill text. The final House text would maintain restrictions on Wall Street’s purchase of single-family homes — a priority for Trump — but would significantly scale back the Senate bill’s limitations on so-called institutional investors in the housing market.

Riley Rogerson, Andrew Howard, Erin Doherty, Jordain Carney, Kelsey Brugger, Katherine Hapgood and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

House Democrats say they tried playing nice. Now the gloves are off.

After spending more than a decade pushing for anti-gerrymandering measures and other good-government initiatives, Democratic lawmakers said this week they are gearing up to play political hardball in the wake of stunning court losses on redistricting — potentially for years to come.

“We will beat the far-right extremists,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday. “We’re going to win in November, and then we’re going to crush their souls as it relates to the extremism that they are trying to unleash on the American people.”

It’s a marked reversal from years of high-minded Democratic rhetoric that included advocating for independent redistricting commissions, campaign finance curbs and more — even as Republicans used the courts and their control of state governments to consolidate and enhance their own party’s power.

The U-turn was already underway, but it was cemented in recent weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court reinterpreted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to allow states to eliminate majority-minority districts. Then the Virginia Supreme Court moved last week to invalidate a recent voter referendum paving the way for a Democrat-friendly map.

Several Democratic states, including New York, have been hindered by their adoption of independent redistricting commissions and other processes meant to take partisan considerations out of the drawing of congressional lines. Now Democratic leaders are openly discussing overriding those safeguards.

“All options should be on the table,” Rep. Ted Lieu (R-Calif.) told reporters Wednesday. “And other states that have redistricting commissions should be prepared to have conversations with their legislature and their voters in response to what we’re seeing in the South. And I think all of that is completely fair.”

The party’s anger also translates to a growing appetite to remake the Supreme Court, which many House Democrats say is ushering in an era of “Jim Crow 2.0.”

Rep. Johnny Olszewski (D-Md.), who has introduced legislation to term-limit the justices, said in an interview that the ruling was “a straw that broke the camel’s back.” And Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) said there are tools to “kneecap” the Supreme Court that Congress has never used, such as stripping their power to review lower court rulings.

“I think everybody from the top of our caucus to the bottom are saying we have got to push back on them,” Casten said.

What was especially gutting to Democrats about the two court decisions was that they believed they had battled Republicans to a draw after President Donald Trump kicked off the unusual mid-decade line drawing spree by pressuring Texas legislators to eliminate as many as five Democratic House seats there.

The Virginia referendum last month was seen as a capstone, with voters essentially endorsing a map that would add four Democratic seats. Jeffries won plaudits for spending heavily to get that result and took a public victory lap only to see it all reversed.

Despite the setback, Jeffries has mostly gotten a pass from fellow House Democrats, who say that the GOP efforts in other states had to be countered despite the risks.

“My feeling is, given what was happening around the country, there was no choice but to launch the effort in Virginia,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), who is retiring after seeing his district radically redrawn.

Jeffries and fellow Democratic leaders laid out an ambitious plan this week to redistrict before the 2028 elections in states like New York, New Jersey, Colorado, Oregon and Washington where their party currently holds power but cannot immediately redraw House lines.

“This is not a war we started,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said. “But as Democrats it’s important that we also get aggressive in that fight.”

The focus on 2028 comes as opportunities to redistrict in 2026 run dry — except for a potential last-ditch pick-up in Maryland, where Democrats want the legislature to eliminate Republican Rep. Andy Harris’ district, even with the state’s primary two weeks away and mail-in ballots already issued.

In light of the court rulings, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) said, there’s “enormous pressure to do something, and I think we should.”

Other House Democrats are calling for new investments in state-level races to support legislators who will commit to redistricting efforts ahead of 2028 and the post-2030 Census redraw.

“Democrats are going to be moving to do what Republicans did 15 years ago and that is to focus on state legislatures,” Rep. Kwesi Mfume (D-Md.) said in an interview. The “smartest thing to do,” he added, “would be to control the process.”

The appetite for even more aggressive redistricting could even mean a new push to redraw maps again in California, where voters last year approved a Democratic-drawn map that handed the party five new favorable districts. The hope is that Democrats can squeeze more blue seats out of the state ahead of 2028.

“We were meeting fire with fire. Texas did five seats, California did five seats,” Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), the Congressional Black Caucus chair, said in an interview. “Now … we’ve got to look at all options. We’re not taking anything off the table.”