In a less depraved time, anyone who followed politics would know about the ugly abuse allegations facing the Florida congressman Cory Mills, and the scandal would be a big problem for the Republican Party.
This week, news broke of a July police report filed against Mills by his ex-girlfriend Lindsey Langston, a beauty queen and Republican Party committee member in Florida. According to the report, Langston, who’d lived with Mills in Florida, broke up with him when she learned that he was under investigation for allegedly assaulting another girlfriend he had in Washington, a pro-Trump activist named Sarah Raviani. Langston claimed that when she tried to end things, Mills threatened to release nude images and videos of her. She also provided the police with text and Instagram messages in which Mills threatened to harm any men she might date in the future.
Mills has denied Langston’s claims, as he denied attacking Raviani. In that case, Raviani had called 911, saying she’d been assaulted in the penthouse where she was living with Mills when he was in town. When the cops arrived, according to The Washington Post, she had “what seemed to be visible injuries.” While Mills was not taken into custody that day, the police did eventually seek a warrant for his arrest. But Raviani changed her story, saying that she hadn’t been physically abused, and the U.S. attorney’s office, then headed by the Trump loyalist Ed Martin, refused to sign off on the cops’ warrant application.
These two incidents are far from the only scandals involving Mills, who was elected in 2022 after boasting about founding a company that sold tear gas used on Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters.
Mills is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee over his financial disclosures and his companies’ government contracts. According to the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Conduct, he likely benefited from those contracts even after taking his seat, a potential violation of both House rules and federal law. Last month, his landlord tried to evict him from his penthouse apartment, claiming he owed $85,000 in back rent, though he’s since reportedly settled up. (He blamed a computer glitch.)