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Republicans quietly fret about ‘disturbing’ Cory Mills allegations

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Rep. Cory Mills has recently faced accusations that he has benefited from federal contracts while in office, that he assaulted a onetime girlfriend in his Washington apartment and, just this week, that he threatened another ex with the release of nude videos.

So far, the drumbeat of tawdry allegations has raised eyebrows in Washington, but it has not translated into any overt effort to sideline the two-term Florida Republican.

GOP leaders in the House and in his home state appear to be betting that Mills’ various messes will sort themselves out without blowing back on the party more broadly — and potentially threatening its hold on power.

President Donald Trump won Mills’ district by 12 points last year, and Mills himself won reelection by a slightly higher margin. Because national party operatives view his seat as safe, there is little incentive for GOP leaders to engage as the accusations swirl. A spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson did not return a request for comment.

Mills, 45, has denied wrongdoing in the contracting matter, which is now under a House Ethics Committee review, as well as the new claims of personal threats first made in a July police report and made public this week. The third incident was resolved after the ex-girlfriend who initially told police in February that Mills had assaulted her withdrew the allegation.

In a statement Tuesday, Mills said the latest accusation was a “political attack” concocted by a political rival, “all to score political headlines.”

“These claims are false and misrepresent the nature of my interaction,” he said. “I have always conducted myself with integrity, both personally and in service to Florida’s 7th District.”

While Republican leaders appear poised to give Mills space, plenty of others see a potential political mess in the making — starting with House Democrats, whose campaign arm recently put his seat on their list of “Districts in Play” for the midterms despite the bearish 2024 results. At least three Democrats have already announced they plan to challenge him.

“Floridians deserve leaders who protect people, not threaten them,” said Noah Widmann, one of the three. “Cory Mills is unfit to serve.”

Among House Republicans, quiet concerns have been brewing for months about whether Mills’ behavior could give Democrats a real opening. Some of his GOP colleagues are wondering if they should start looking for another candidate to back in the district, according to three Republicans granted anonymity to describe private talks.

“What if he is arrested for real?” said one of the three, a member.

Another House Republican, also granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, said other controversies — including an allegation of unpaid rent that Mills dismissed last month as a misunderstanding with building management — have also surprised lawmakers.

A recent NOTUS report questioned whether Mills has been honest about his military service for which he was awarded a Bronze Star; Mills acknowledged “different recollections during chaotic wartime events” but said he was entitled to the honor. And as House Ethics probes his businesses’ contracts, which concern the sales of weapons or other equipment, Mills continues to sit on the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees.

“And then this whole other issue is disturbing,” the lawmaker said about the new accusations of personal threats.

Those are rooted in Mills’ relationship with Lindsey Langston, the 2024 Miss United States. She told authorities last month that Mills contacted her multiple times threatening to release nude images and videos of them having sex and harm her future romantic partners after she broke off the relationship earlier this year, according to a police report obtained this week by Blue Light News. The report said Langston shared messages with Mills backing up her claims.

The Columbia County, Florida, sheriff’s department forwarded the report to the state Department of Law Enforcement for investigation. The agency confirmed Wednesday it received the request but declined to comment further.

Langston’s allegations have been complicated by the involvement of Anthony Sabatini, a hard-right former Florida legislator who ran against Mills in 2022 and is now serving as Langston’s lawyer.

Mills suggested this week that Sabatini was engaged in a political vendetta, but the attorney said Wednesday that he no longer lives in Mills’ district and has no plans to seek his seat. The evidence of Mills’ actions speaks for itself, he said.

Sabatini said he plans to take Langston’s allegations directly to the House Ethics Committee, which he said has “the independent authority to investigate this on its face.” A spokesperson for the panel declined to comment.

“If they don’t do it, it’s only because [of] the margins,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Florida, conversation has surrounded just what Mills’ future in GOP politics might look like. One top Republican operative in the state said, even before the latest reports, Mills had been “extremely frustrated” in the House and “there are people out thinking about running for the congressional seat” if he does not run for a third term.

“He didn’t know if he wanted to continue in Congress,” said the operative, who was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

Mills first won his seat in 2022 after post-Census redistricting created new GOP-friendly lines for the 7th District, stretching from Orlando’s north suburbs to the Atlantic coast — prompting Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy to retire.

His campaigns in both 2022 and 2024 were run with the aid of James Blair, a GOP consultant who now works as a deputy chief of staff for Trump and plays a key role in pushing the president’s agenda on Blue Light News.

Earlier this year, Mills was talking openly about running for the Senate seat that was vacated by Marco Rubio when he resigned to become secretary of State. But Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody instead, and Trump likely snuffed out any chance of a successful primary challenge by endorsing her late last month for next year’s special election.

In his statement, Mills said he would “remain focused on serving my constituents and advancing America First policies” and had no plans to comment further on Langston’s allegations.

“My team and I will fully cooperate to ensure the truth is made clear,” he said.

Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.

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Congress

Mike Johnson tries again to extend contested spy law

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House GOP leaders on Thursday unveiled the text of a new three-year extension of a key spy law, as Speaker Mike Johnson tried to overcome ultra-conservative resistance and pass it next week.

The proposed reauthorization of the so-called Section 702 law includes some new oversight and penalties for abuses of the spy authority but stops short of warrant requirements sought by GOP hard-liners.

Conservatives have pushed back on extending Section 702, which allows warrantless surveillance of foreigners, because of concerns about U.S. citizens being caught up in the program.

The faction that’s been opposing an extension has not yet signed off on the latest plan. GOP leaders plan to continue talks into the weekend.

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House GOP leaders scramble to sell Senate’s slimmed-down budget with promises of ‘Reconciliation 3.0’

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House Republican leaders want a floor vote next week on the Senate’s budget resolution, the first step in writing an immigration enforcement bill and passing it by President Donald Trump’s June 1 deadline.

“It has to be clean because it has to be quick,” Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday, indicating that conservatives could not make major changes to the other chamber’s blueprint at this time.

But Johnson and others still have to lock in support from conservatives who are threatening to vote against it if it doesn’t encompass more top GOP policy priorities, and it is proving to be a delicate balancing act.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (La.) met Thursday morning with Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (Texas) and leaders of key House GOP factions, according to four people granted anonymity to share details of private meetings — an effort to quell concerns among some conservatives about the narrow scope of the current plan. Arrington and other senior Republicans have been pushing to expand the party-line bill currently under discussion.

Johnson, Scalise and others in GOP leadership are promising that as soon as Republicans pass a bill funding immigration enforcement and some border patrol activities, they will get to work on another measure through the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process.

“We’re going to move right to reconciliation, what will now be 3.0,” Johnson said, referring both to the current plan and the tax and spending megabill Republicans passed last summer. “We’re going to do it as quickly as possible.”

Some of the ideas that circulated during the closed-door leadership meeting Thursday included opening up the possibility for more tax policy changes, addressing the Trump administration’s request for $350 billion for the Pentagon, additional funding for the Iran war and spending cuts across social programs in another package.

Arrington, who is among those wishing to expand the upcoming reconciliation effort, is seeking steep spending reductions to social programs and hopes to revisit Obamacare spending — including cost-sharing reductions, which would reduce out-of-pocket health costs.

Leadership of the Republican Study Committee, meanwhile, is demanding that any third reconciliation bill be fully paid for. There has been limited angst over “pay-fors” for the current party-line pursuit because the measure is an attempt to fund the immigration enforcement agencies and circumvent regular appropriations negotiations, which have been stuck for months.

But many Republicans are doubtful their party will be able to pass another party-line bill ahead of the midterms and see the immigration funding bill as their last bite at the apple. Some of them, including Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio, are threatening to vote against the Senate budget resolution that would unlock the reconciliation process for the immigration funding measure unless it can incorporate more items from the hard-liners’ wishlist.

GOP leaders are now scrambling to stave off defections. Adoption of identical budget resolutions in both chambers will unlock the ability for lawmakers to write and pass a bill through reconciliation that would send tens of billions of dollars to immigration enforcement operations run through the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shuttered since February.

Republicans are on a very tight schedule to send this bill to Trump’s desk and pave the way for ending the record-setting DHS shutdown, given White House demands.

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‘Junior reporters’ pepper Hakeem Jeffries with tough questions

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Hakeem Jeffries celebrated Take Your Child to Work Day by taking questions from the children of the Capitol Hill press corps, but it got heavy fast.

The first question: “Why do voters view Democrats so poorly?”

Jeffries responded with a lengthy explanation of broad voter distrust in institutions.

“There’s a great frustration that applies to every organized institution in this country, and Democrats are not immune from that,” he said.

But, Jeffries added, “Consistently in state after state and race after race and contest after contest, irrefutably, the American people are choosing the Democratic Party.”

He fielded other tough questions from the “junior reporters” in the room, including if he would have voted to expel Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick if she hadn’t resigned earlier this week.

“She did the right thing in stepping down,” Jeffries said.

Other questions from kids in the room did tackle lighter subjects.

Jeffries’ favorite candy? Sugar-free Hershey’s chocolate.

What did he want to be when he grew up? A point guard for the Knicks or a hip-hop star.

Does he think the Yankees will win the World Series? “Hope springs eternal.”

And, simply, “What’s next?”

To that Jeffries said: “As Democrats, we’re fighting one battle after another, pushing back against the extremism that we believe is being released on the American people by Donald Trump and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.”

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