Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) said that the unredacted photo of his 2-year-old daughter that was publicly shared in a Dropbox folder “is being taken very much out of context.”
The photo, a part of files Miller and his team shared to social media amid allegations of domestic and child abuse, was uploaded after the congressman appeared on a livestream to defend himself against the claims leveled by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno.
“There was no genitalia of my daughter that was exposed, and this is once again a very salacious headline,” Miller told CNN’s Jake Tapper, who said the photo showed Miller’s daughter “naked,” Tuesday during a heated interview.
The congressman denied the allegations of domestic and child abuse and said he would neither resign nor end his reelection bid, citing the allegations made against President Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2016 election.
Miller pushed back on Tapper’s accusation that the posting of the sensitive photo was “shockingly reckless,” claiming the image is already publicly available as part of a Child and Family Protective Services investigation.
Tapper pushed back on Miller’s claim, saying that CPS told CNN the photo was not part of an investigation. The Washington Examiner has reached out to CPS for confirmation.
Moreno’s lawyer, Subodh Chandra, claimed in a letter to Miller’s lawyer that the Dropbox file left their daughter’s name unredacted and contained at least one image that “could be considered Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) because the daughter’s genitals appear to be visible.”
Aaron Minc, an attorney for Miller, took sole responsibility earlier Tuesday for improperly redacting the files, saying in a statement that including the photo was “completely unintentional and a mistake.”
When Tapper pressed him on why he was defending the inadvertent upload of the image, Miller said he was not defending it, calling it “awful.”
But the congressman reiterated his claim that it was taken out of context, referring to media coverage of the incident.
“I didn’t do this,” Miller said. “My attorney took full responsibility. I believe that it’s awful. There was never any intent to do that.”
The embattled Ohio Republican also rejected claims from his ex-father-in-law, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), who alleged that Miller had refused to hand over a plush toy his daughter sleeps with during a child custody changeover last weekend at a police station.
“She has a little blue bunny that she sleeps with,” Moreno told reporters. “Max would not hand over the little blue bunny. Literally held it hostage for 48 hours. This girl is crying at night because she can’t sleep without her little blue bunny. His answer is, ‘I’m just not going to give it to you.’ … This is the level of total and complete depravity.”
Miller denied the allegation, saying the senator’s statement was “nothing more than an individual who’s being politically vindictive in talking about a blue bunny.”
The Washington Examiner has reached out to Emily Moreno’s lawyer and Sen. Moreno’s office for comment.