Westlake doctor sues Max Miller for defamation after Tesla data and other evidence reveals that Congressman lied about alleged “antisemitic road rage” incident

Last June, U.S. Congressman Max Miller (R, OH-7) made national headlines smearing Westlake doctor Feras Hamdan, MD as an “unhinged,” “deranged” antisemite who “threatened to kill” Miller and his family and “ran him off the road” while the two were driving in their respective vehicles on Interstate 90 near Cleveland. As a result of Miller’s accusations, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor charged Dr. Hamdan with ethnic intimidation and tampering with evidence, both felonies, along with misdemeanor counts of aggravated menacing and menacing. With these charges having been dramatically reduced by the Prosecutor in and thereby resolved this morning at a plea hearing in what Miller’s lawyer described as the “deal of the century,” which was based on evidence recorded by Dr. Hamdan’s Tesla and other evidence proving that Miller was lying about the alleged incident, our firm today filed a lawsuit on Hamdan’s behalf for defamation and other civil claims against Miller seeking compensation for the harm caused by the Congressman’s destructive lies.

Immediately after the alleged “antisemitic road rage” incident, Miller took to X.com, posting a video wherein he accused Hamdan of having “assaulted” him by an act of “blatant antisemitic violence,” and further stated as follows:

“As I was driving to work, some unhinged, deranged man decided to lay on his horn and run me off the road when he couldn’t get my attention to show me a Palestinian flag. Not to mention ‘death to Israel,’ death to me — that he wanted to kill me and my family. Thank God my daughter was not in my vehicle or anybody else at the time. We know exactly who you are. … We will not hide, and I will continue to fight against antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all other forms of hate. If you have an issue, take it to our office. If you want to run me off the road, that’s a different story. We know who you are young man and the police are going to be paying you a visit, and I hope what you did this morning is worth it to you and anyone else who plans on doing this to anyone within our district, state, or country.”

911 call records further show that Miller told emergency dispatchers that Hamdan was “a full Palestinian guy” who “cut [him] off,” “flipp[ed] him off,” and “said he wanted to kill me and my daughter, verbatim.” Miller, who repeated these accusations in police interviews, also told 911 dispatchers that Hamdan “rolled down his window and said that I’m going to cut your throat and your daughter’s, and he said you’re a dirty Jew, I’m going to f*ck*ng kill you all, and I know who you are and where you live.”

Based on Miller’s accusations, Dr. Hamdan’s workplace, a family medical practice, was raided by more than a dozen police officers, Dr. Hamdan was arrested and charged, and the Rocky River Municipal Court set a $500,000 bond for his release — an amount typically reserved for accused murderers.

From there, a tidal wave of local, national, and international news coverage ensued, depicting Dr. Hamdan as a antisemitic “Jew hater” who had “run” a U.S. Congressman “off the road” and threatened to kill him and his family.

Despite the rush to judgment by the police, prosecutors, and the press as to Miller’s facially implausible and stereotypically Islamophobic accusations against Dr. Hamdan — including that Miller could have heard any threats from Hamdan while the two were traveling in their respective vehicles while driving at highway speeds — these accusations were shortly revealed to be false by evidence produced in the criminal proceedings. This included data pulled from the Tesla vehicle that Hamdan was driving, which—along with ODOT surveillance footage capturing the vehicles driving on I-90 during the incident in question—showed that Hamdan’s windows were up during the entire alleged incident, and that the movement of his steering wheel was inconsistent with any effort to swerve or “run Miller off the road” during the times in question. Dr. Hamdan’s defense team also produced a report from an acoustics expert whose analysis confirmed the common sense conclusion that, even if Hamdan’s and Miller’s windows were both down at the time of the alleged incident, any words that Hamdan would have shouted while the two were traveling in their vehicles at highway speeds would have been “scrambled and unintelligible.” Additionally, Miller, in his post at X.com, had initially accused Dr. Hamdan of “throw[ing] a Palestinian flag out of the window” of his vehicle, but later edited his post to state that Hamdan had merely “show[n] a Palestinian flag” before taking off.

Hamdan’s attorneys additionally pointed out to prosecutors Miller’s obvious bias against Palestinian people, including his many Palestinian constituents on the west side of Greater Cleveland who have taken issue with Miller’s hateful public rhetoric toward them and their homeland. This includes statements that Miller made on Fox News that he would not recognize the Palestinian flag “because [Palestine is] not a state, [it’s] a territory, that’s about to probably get eviscerated and go away here shortly, as we’re going to turn [the Gaza Strip] into a parking lot.” Dr. Hamdan admitted that he honked his vehicle’s horn at Miller when he noticed the Congressman driving on the highway in the lane next to his vehicle on the morning in question, and that he showed Miller a Palestine flag that he had pulled up his phone to indicate his disapproval with the Congressman’s hateful statements. As the evidence showed, however, this was the sum and substance of the interaction between the two, and Miller was so upset by Hamdan’s mild expression of dissent toward him that he fabricated the implausible and nakedly Islamophobic accusations that Hamdan had threatened his life.

Based on this evidence showing that Miller fabricated his accusations, the Prosecutor offered Dr. Hamdan the chance to plead to expungable misdemeanors, including minor misdemeanor charges of reckless driving, and disorderly conduct for engaging in “turbulent behavior,” as well as a second-degree misdemeanor charge of “obstructing official business” which was based on the fact that Hamdan had, for personal reasons, deleted a few messages he had sent to close friends and family members about his interaction with Miller before he knew that these events would be subject to a police investigation.

Having pleaded to these dramatically reduced charges, which do not reflect any responsibility for “assaulting” Miller, “menacing” him, “running him off the road,” threatening to kill him or his family, or doing anything of the like, and which was described by Miller’s attorney at this morning’s plea hearing as “the deal of the century,” Hamdan has, as of this afternoon, exercised his right to seek civil justice from Miller by suing him under Ohio law for defamation and related claims in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.

“We’re grateful that Dr. Hamdan was able to obtain a favorable resolution on charges that were dramatically reduced from what was originally charged, and we’re eager to obtain justice against Mr. Miller for his lies that turned Dr. Hamdan’s life upside down and destroyed his livelihood and reputation,” said Peter Pattakos, one of Hamdan’s attorneys. Pattakos continued: “It’s the height of shameful hypocrisy, and unfortunately all too typical of a certain political element in this country, for Mr. Miller to on one hand engage in hateful rhetoric by which he promises to ‘eviscerate’ the homeland of two million people and ‘turn it into a parking lot,’ and then go crying to the police with preposterous false accusations when one of his many constituents with ties to that land mildly expresses his dissent by showing him a Palestinian flag. Miller should of course be ashamed of himself, and so should the law enforcement officials who failed to scrutinize his transparent lies, and instead rushed to treat Dr. Hamdan, a respected doctor with no criminal history, like the stereotypical brown-skinned ‘terrorist.’ This includes, not least, Rocky River detective Mike Asbury, who, ironically, was given the ‘Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award” in 2024 by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Mike O’Malley ‘for his forensic analysis of cars, computers, and mobile phones.’ Despite this ostensible expertise, Detective Asbury failed to pull readily available data from Dr. Hamdan’s vehicle that proved Miller’s facially incredible accusations to be actually impossible. As if it were believable in the first place that Miller, an obviously biased witness, would have been able to make out the alleged threats with such specificity while the two man were driving in different vehicles on the highway. Dr. Hamdan regrets having to plead to any criminal charges in this matter, but the justice system in a nation where a blathering warmonger like Max Miller can get elected as a Congressman is not perfect, and the deal for expungable misdemeanors that was offered was too good to pass up given everything that Dr. Hamdan had to lose, and the fact that a path to civil justice against Miller remains available to him. We look forward to more of the truth about this matter being exposed in the defamation case, and to obtaining justice for Dr. Hamdan against Miller for his vile lies.”

Dr. Hamdan is also represented by Issa Elkhatib and Emily Korona-Luscher of the Elkhatib Law Office in Cleveland, and Maryam Assar of the Pattakos Law Firm in Cleveland. A copy of Dr. Hamdan’s filed complaint against Mr. Miller in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas is available here, Case No. CV-26-133225, Judge William F.B. Vodrey presiding.