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Republican Max Miller, a U.S. House candidate in Ohio's 16th Congressional District and a former Trump aide, filed a defamation lawsuit over allegations of physical abuse made in a book by his former girlfriend and White House colleague.
Miller filed the complaint against Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary, in a Cleveland court on Tuesday, although Grisham has not directly mentioned him by name. A Cuyahoga County judge denied Miller's request for a temporary restraining order against Grisham, who planned to promote her book about the Trump White House in several national interviews.
Grisham's bombshell book, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House, and a Tuesday opinion piece in The Washington Post makes claims that a fellow member of then-President Donald Trump's staff physically abused her.
For more reporting from The Associated Press, see below.
While Grisham did not use Miller's name, his complaint acknowledges he is the boyfriend in question.
Miller's lawsuit said the article is "replete with libelous and defamatory false statements."
In her book, Grisham alleged that the relationship "had become violent, reaching its worst point on the day I left" and that she had shared what had happened with both the former first lady and the former president.
Melania Trump, she wrote in The Washington Post, "asked me if I had called the police and I said no, explaining that this close to the election, it wouldn't be good to have yet another domestic abuse scandal hanging over the administration."
While the book is vague on the specific allegations, Politico reported in July that Grisham and Miller's relationship ended "when he pushed her against a wall and slapped her in the face in his Washington apartment after she accused him of cheating on her."
Miller's lawsuit told the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas that Grisham is leveling the abuse allegations with actual malice, intending to harm him.
Her actions are "in retaliation for her failed relationship with Plaintiff, in retaliation against those associated with the Trump Administration for her failed stint as White House Press Secretary, in a malicious attempt to secure personal financial gain by selling more books, and/or for other reasons to be revealed at trial," according to the complaint.
In a statement responding to the suit, Grisham said, "Of course I expected this. It's another form of abuse and intimidation, and it's right out of the Trump playbook."
Trump encouraged Miller to run and has endorsed him against fellow Republican U.S. Representative Anthony Gonzalez, a one-time rising star within the GOP who voted to impeach the former president for his role in inciting the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Gonzalez announced on September 17 that he would not seek reelection, citing "toxic dynamics" inside the Republican party.
Matthew Diemer, a podcast producer from Bay Village west of Cleveland, is running on the Democratic side.
