{"id":12114,"date":"2025-08-06T23:01:39","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T23:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/republicans-quietly-fret-about-disturbing-cory-mills-allegations\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T23:01:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T23:01:39","slug":"republicans-quietly-fret-about-disturbing-cory-mills-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/republicans-quietly-fret-about-disturbing-cory-mills-allegations\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans quietly fret about \u2018disturbing\u2019 Cory Mills allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

GOP leaders in the House and in his home state appear to be betting that Mills\u2019 various messes will sort themselves out without blowing back on the party more broadly \u2014 and potentially threatening its hold on power.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump won Mills\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a statement Tuesday, Mills said the latest accusation was a \u201cpolitical attack\u201d concocted by a political rival, \u201call to score political headlines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese claims are false and misrepresent the nature of my interaction,\u201d he said. \u201cI have always conducted myself with integrity, both personally and in service to Florida\u2019s 7th District.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Republican leaders appear poised to give Mills space, plenty of others see a potential political mess in the making \u2014 starting with House Democrats, whose campaign arm recently put his seat on their list of \u201cDistricts in Play\u201d for the midterms despite the bearish 2024 results. At least three Democrats have already announced they plan to challenge him.<\/p>\n

\u201cFloridians deserve leaders who protect people, not threaten them,\u201d said Noah Widmann, one of the three. \u201cCory Mills is unfit to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among House Republicans, quiet concerns have been brewing for months about whether Mills\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if he is arrested for real?\u201d said one of the three, a member.<\/p>\n

Another House Republican, also granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, said other controversies \u2014 including an allegation of unpaid rent<\/a> that Mills dismissed last month as a misunderstanding with building management \u2014 have also surprised lawmakers.<\/p>\n

A recent NOTUS report questioned<\/a> whether Mills has been honest about his military service for which he was awarded a Bronze Star; Mills acknowledged \u201cdifferent recollections during chaotic wartime events\u201d but said he was entitled to the honor. And as House Ethics probes his businesses\u2019 contracts, which concern the sales of weapons or other equipment, Mills continues to sit on the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then this whole other issue is disturbing,\u201d the lawmaker said about the new accusations of personal threats.<\/p>\n

Those are rooted in Mills\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

The Columbia County, Florida, sheriff\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Langston\u2019s 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\u2019s lawyer.<\/p>\n

Mills suggested this week that Sabatini was engaged in a political vendetta, but the attorney said Wednesday that he no longer lives in Mills\u2019 district and has no plans to seek his seat. The evidence of Mills\u2019 actions speaks for itself, he said.<\/p>\n

Sabatini said he plans to take Langston\u2019s allegations directly to the House Ethics Committee, which he said has \u201cthe independent authority to investigate this on its face.\u201d A spokesperson for the panel declined to comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they don\u2019t do it, it\u2019s only because [of] the margins,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Florida, conversation has surrounded just what Mills\u2019 future in GOP politics might look like. One top Republican operative in the state said, even before the latest reports, Mills had been \u201cextremely frustrated\u201d in the House and \u201cthere are people out thinking about running for the congressional seat\u201d if he does not run for a third term.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t know if he wanted to continue in Congress,\u201d said the operative, who was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.<\/p>\n

Mills first won his seat in 2022 after post-Census redistricting created new GOP-friendly lines for the 7th District, stretching from Orlando\u2019s north suburbs to the Atlantic coast \u2014 prompting Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy to retire.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s agenda on Blue Light News.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> for next year\u2019s special election.<\/p>\n

In his statement, Mills said he would \u201cremain focused on serving my constituents and advancing America First policies\u201d and had no plans to comment further on Langston\u2019s allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy team and I will fully cooperate to ensure the truth is made clear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}