(David Beasley, The Center Square) A Northeast Ohio Republican congressman continues standing firm amid calls for his resignation over allegations he abused his ex-wife and a former girlfriend.
U.S. Rep. Max Miller plans to ask for a congressional ethics investigation on himself, he said Tuesday on social media.
“In light of all the renewed interest in my family affairs I am going to file my own paperwork for an ethics investigation into myself to clear my name from these horrific attacks on myself and family,” the congressman wrote. “I have absolutely nothing to hide. We will be providing the committee all necessary documents needed for a detailed examination. The accusations continue to change, but my facts stay the same. I am looking forward to my colleagues reading everything for themselves.”
Miller faced a 4 p.m. Wednesday deadline to withdraw from the November election to allow the Grand Old Party to put another name on the ballot.
Among those calling Miller to step down are his former father-in-law, U.S. Sen Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, who called Miller a danger to the senator’s daughter and granddaughter.
”As a father and husband, I can tell you the last two years have been pure hell for my wife Bridget, our daughter Emily, me, and our entire family in the aftermath of Emily’s divorce,” Moreno wrote on social media. “It has been horrific to watch this play out in full public view, all while knowing an innocent 2-year-old girl is caught in the middle.”
Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., also joined the call for Miller’s resignation.
Miller denies the charges and President Donald Trump on Monday did not call for him to drop out.
On a Newsmax appearance on Wednesday, Miller alluded to information he had about Moreno that the first-term senator “doesn’t want to get out.” Miller said he was not going to share it.
Miller, representing Cuyahoga, Holmes, Medina and Wayne counties, also released an online public Dropbox that says contains underlying documents, recordings and records relating to the allegations.
Miller, on the White House staff during Trump’s first term, has also likened his controversy to allegations Trump faced and fought over the years.
Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, Miller’s ex-girlfriend, in a recent book also accused Miller of being violent. She filed for a restraining order against him Sunday in Cuyahoga County.
In an interview on CNN, Miller said Grisham and his ex-wife are lying, along with another women who leveled similar allegations when Miller was a teenager.
“Every single time, and people have asked me, what are you going to do, are you going to drop out of this race, are you going to resign, are you going to get out before the deadline, my answer to you Jake is no,” Miller told CNN’s Jake Trapper. “And I can tell you why. In 2016 when President Donald J. Trump faced the most extreme allegations in the world that hit him day after day, and people in the media very much like yourself and others, said he had no shot at winning, that he should not be the President of the United States. But guess what, he stayed in and he was resilient.
“What the American people can see is that they can see that somebody is fighting and they are resilient and that is a quality they cherish. So, for no second am I going to sit here and be debased by false and baseless allegations and be pushed out of a seat I’ve worked so hard to represent.”
