Cory Mills breaks silence on scandals, ethics probe and political survival

U.S. Rep. Cory Mills expects to be exonerated in a House Ethics investigation, so long as it gets conducted fairly. If voters still judge him, that’s part of the job.

“What is the absolute worst-case scenario for me? I go back to living in my beach house in New Smyrna, enjoying spending time with my kids,” the Florida Republican said. “This is not supposed to be one of those things that we’re so up in arms about, because you win or lose an election. You’re here just to serve, and if the people decide they want you to serve, then so be it.”

Still, he remains confident he has the political strength to win re-election, especially with President Donald Trump’s endorsement. “I mean, the President obviously sees that I’m fit to serve, which is why I’m the only endorsed candidate in the entire race,” he said.

Indeed, Trump’s endorsement came well after a series of personal scandals pushed Mills from a contender for U.S. Senate to the target of four separate censure attempts, one led by a Republican colleague.

Throughout the entire Congress, Mills has been under a House Ethics Committee investigation, one expected to wrap soon. He faces allegations that he profited from defense contracts after his election to Congress, brought by former GOP Primary opponent Michael Johnson (no relation to House Speaker Mike Johnson).

But what became more explosive in media headlines were more recent accusations from prior romantic partners. Sarah Raviani, a live-in girlfriend in Washington, called the police in February 2025 and alleged he had assaulted her in their apartment, but she later recanted her accusations. Later, Lindsey Langston, who lived with Mills in his Florida home, told police Mills threatened the release of intimate pictures and videos and produced text messages to that effect, prompting a Judge in October 2025 to issue a restraining order forbidding online communications.

Critics have also pointed to reports that he exaggerated his military record, though Mills recently produced his discharge papers showing he earned an oft-questioned Bronze Star.

When U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, called for Mills to be stripped of Committee assignments, Mills said he felt confident that a fair investigation would show he had broken no House rules. He still feels that way.

“My thing is not to impede and just to continue to comply and let Ethics do their jobs, so long as Ethics is doing it in a professional manner— that they’re not abusing power, they’re not stepping outside of the standard constitutional limitations, which they do have,” Mills said.

“That would be my only concern, is ethics stepping outside of the scope of their investigations in their own violation and having an abuse of power, because I am hearing a few things that they may have already done that, and so that would be slightly concerning, which I’ll look into whenever it happens.”

He declined to discuss any specific allegations, saying he didn’t want to feed rumors without all the necessary facts.

Mills quickly corrects mischaracterizations of the investigation and allegations he currently faces. While the House Ethics Committee recently included Mills in a list of all “sexual misconduct” investigations it ever conducted, Mills said he has not faced such an allegation.

He has never been accused of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with staffers on the Hill, something former U.S. Reps. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, and Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican, admitted to before their resignations this year.

Asked about what separates his issues from those sexual misconduct matters, Mills immediately pushes back.

“I know it’s not intentional, but what I would say is this, you can’t start a question out that is trying to make a comparison to ‘sexual misconduct’ when I was never actually accused of and am not being investigated for sexual misconduct,” Mills said. “It’s not just about with the staff. It’s completely.”

Neither Raviani nor Langston ever worked for Mills or for Congress, and neither accused him of sexual assault. Regarding the Raviani incident, which set off a tidal wave of bad press for Mills last year, he noted the Metropolitan Police never arrested him.

“They claim that they’re looking at the February incident, but both MPD and everyone involved had already said no assault and no actual probable cause had ever been found or taken place,” he said.

Ed Martin, the U.S. Attorney at the time of the incident, recently told LindellTV that the Metropolitan Police only considered charges a day later, after the press picked up the matter. Prosecutors declined to do so.

“We said you didn’t have probable cause last night. You didn’t put it together last night, and now you’re changing your story. Why?” Martin said. “And the reason why is because it was a mop-up job, because of the attention it was getting.”

Mills also noted an order issued by the courts following Langston’s allegations expired some time ago, and no party has pursued further action.

“They tried to say that there was an issue in regards to a cyber, basically, injunction for 71 days, which has long been gone, since 2025, and no criminal or civil penalties have ever been raised,” Mills said.

“I’ve never been charged with anything. The only thing on my record is a driver’s speeding ticket.”

Mills also brushed off questions about improper fundraising or profiting from contracts, noting the Federal Election Commission had already conducted and closed an investigation. He chuckles at the idea that he has profited from deals from his prior career as a defense contractor.

“The most comical thing was, they were also investigating whether or not my position played a factor into my business. My business is going bankrupt because I’m not a part of it. It was very successful before,” Mills said.

“And the contract that they’re actually looking at, that they’re claiming is under the Federal Bureau of Prisons? The federal contract is a legacy contract awarded, I believe, back in 2018 when we bought ALS (now Pacem Defense) as a company.”

Why, then, has Mills been the subject of so much scrutiny? In April, Mills’ name often came up along with Swalwell, Gonzales and U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who also resigned while under federal indictment, as lawmakers who potentially faced expulsion. Only Mills still has his seat in the House.

“We always know that Democrats and Republicans will kind of do this one-for-one thing, where they’ll say,’ Okay, well, if you’re going to do this against us, we’re going to do this against you.’ And so you just get lumped into it,” Mills said.

“Look, it could have been a multitude of people, right? You could take your pick of individuals that are already under Ethics investigations that they could have chosen, but I’m the higher name, and so it was an easier target for them to try and go after. So, I was never federally indicted as Cherfilus-McCormick had been. I never had any sexual misconduct or inappropriate or admitted to any type of things like this. The other members did. So, it is very, very different.”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee notably targeted mills, but that was before the scandals surfaced. He notes that it likely has more to do with just representing a District that has swung before. He flipped a seat previously represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy in 2022. She won office in 2016 by unseating Republican U.S. Rep. John Mica.

He certainly wishes more attention were paid to his policy work and to the ways he has served the public as a private citizen outside his congressional service, including rescue missions in Afghanistan, Israel and Haiti.

“I’m the only member of Congress who rescued over 400 Americans in three countries. The only person,” he said. “I lead the entire state of Florida in constituent services. We just surpassed $100 million in constituent services from SSI, disability, Treasury, FEMA, IRS, etc. Over 6,000 cases since I’ve come here. You know, I donate my salary to women, children that are in charities.”