WASHINGTON -- A domestic drama involving a House lawmaker and his former father-in-law, a U.S. senator, has shocked Capitol Hill and prompted escalating accusations with both personal and political consequences.

The messy back-and-forth between two Ohio Republicans -- Rep. Max Miller and Sen. Bernie Moreno -- briefly took over Senate Majority Leader John Thune's weekly press conference and prompted a phone call between President Trump and Miller, a former White House and Trump campaign aide, about prospects that the accusations have damaged Miller's re-election campaign.

"Truly, the seventh level of hell," a grim-faced Moreno told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday. "This has been a horrific experience for my entire family."

Moreno's daughter, Emily Moreno, is divorced from Miller, whom she has accused in court filings and police reports of physically abusing her and their 2-year-old daughter. He has denied the accusations.

In an interview Tuesday, Miller said he is in hell, right alongside Moreno. "It's one that he helped create and nurture and enable," he said.

The dispute comes just as deadlines approach, within days, for Miller to withdraw so that his party can replace him on the ballot. The situation has alarmed House Republican leaders, who considered his seat safe for their party until a couple of weeks ago.

Some Republicans had held out hope that Miller might listen to Trump. But when the two spoke Monday, according to Miller, the president didn't explicitly ask his former aide to drop out, instead saying the race would be tough to win.

Democrats only need a net gain of three seats to take control of the House. Miller was first elected in 2022 and won his 2024 election with 51% of the vote. Democrats have tapped Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker and a local city council member, to challenge him.

"If Max Miller is on the ballot, this is one of the most vulnerable seats in the country for Republicans. If he drops, the GOP might be able to salvage it," one Ohio-based Republican strategist said.

Emily Moreno has accused her former husband in court filings and police reports of throwing boiling water at her, holding a gun to her head and other physical abuse. She also alleges that their daughter's collarbone was broken while she was under Miller's care. Miller has categorically denied those allegations and said that the Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services, after an investigation, found that accusations he had abused his daughter weren't substantiated. Both parents share custody of their daughter.

When Emily Moreno and Max Miller married in 2022, at Trump's golf club in Bedminster, N.J., they were a rising Republican power couple. Their union linked two politically connected Ohio families. Both had worked with Trump and on political campaigns. He personally toasted them.

Two years later, on the couple's wedding anniversary, Miller filed for divorce. It quickly became acrimonious. Details began to trickle out in the news.

Moreno, a businessman and auto dealer elected to the Senate in 2024, stayed silent for months. But on Sunday, he said Miller wasn't fit to serve in Congress, and on Tuesday, in a crush of reporters and television cameras in a Senate hallway, he unloaded, saying his daughter lives in constant fear of Miller.

"Not like something that's existential, but deeply in her heart, she fears what this guy is capable of," he said.

Moreno said he hadn't spoken up previously because his daughter had asked him to de-escalate for her daughter's sake.

Miller said he is facing a political hit job because he had planned a primary challenge to his former father-in-law for the Senate seat. He said he had not gotten a call from House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) or Rep. Richard Hudson (R., N.C.), who leads the House Republican campaign arm.

"Not one person has called me to step down or step aside," Miller said.

The drama has pushed its way into the already chaotic Capitol Hill news cycle, to the point that Thune, the Senate Republican leader, found himself taking questions about Moreno and Miller at his weekly press conference.

Thune tried in vain to focus on his talking points about a bipartisan government-funding bill and legislation to sanction Russia.

Some Republican senators closed ranks around Moreno on Tuesday, shutting down reporters' questions. "He's a friend, so that's all I'm going to say about that," said Sen. Eric Schmitt (R., Mo.). Ohio's other Republican senator, Jon Husted, who is in a tough re-election battle of his own against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, sidestepped when asked about the controversy in a Newsmax interview. "Let's focus on letting them sort through this at a family level," Husted said.

Other GOP senators called on Miller to step down and said their hearts went out to Moreno. "I think honestly, it hurts him so much that he probably doesn't want to talk about it," said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R., W.Va.).

On the other side of the Capitol, House Republican leadership has been trying to work with Miller, but he hasn't been receptive, people familiar with the conversations said. Miller and his team have ignored advice and at times blindsided GOP leaders with his public comments and actions, these people said.

Shortly before Moreno called him unfit for office on Sunday, Miller and Moreno met for a handoff of Miller's daughter. Moreno told reporters that Miller refused to hand over a blue bunny the little girl sleeps with. "Literally held it hostage for 48 hours," Moreno said. "This girl is crying at night because she can't sleep without her little blue bunny."

Miller said his daughter has multiple blue bunnies and that he didn't keep a bunny from her.

On Tuesday, Miller asked the House Ethics Committee to open an investigation into the accusations against him, to clear his name, he said. The committee announced it would launch a probe. Such investigations often take months.