House Republican leaders really didn’t need another controversy surrounding one of their members, but they apparently have one anyway.
It was last month when Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida first generated national headlines when NBC News reported that the local police department in Washington, D.C., had begun an investigation into the congressman, following a report of an alleged assault. NBC News went on to report soon after that the Metropolitan Police Department in the nation’s capital “sent an arrest warrant” on Mills to interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin’s office, but the warrant went unsigned by the hyper-partisan Trump-appointed prosecutor.
The GOP congressman issued a statement “vehemently” denying any wrongdoing, claiming that law enforcement “was asked to resolve a private matter” at Mills’ residence. The story soon faded.
Unfortunately for the Florida Republican, however, he’s now confronting an entirely different controversy. Roll Call reported:
In one of its first actions of the new Congress, the House Ethics Committee announced Thursday it would conduct a further review of allegations against Rep. Cory Mills. It comes after an August 2024 referral from the Office of Congressional Conduct, which found the Florida Republican may have omitted or misrepresented information in financial disclosure reports and kept contracts with the federal government.
While congressional ethics are often nuanced and complex, the basic elements of this story are rather straightforward: To avoid conflicts of interest, lawmakers cannot personally benefit from government contracts. Mills, according to investigators, is directly tied to two businesses that did, in fact, receive contracts for munition and weapons for prisons, sparking the controversy.
“There is substantial reason to believe that Rep. Mills may have entered into, held, or enjoyed contracts with federal agencies while he was a Member of Congress,” the Office of Congressional Conduct report concluded.
A Politico report added that the OCC “also found some evidence that Mills may have ‘omitted or misrepresented’ information on his financial disclosure forms.” The Republican lawmaker chose not to cooperate with the investigation, though his office issued a statement insisting that Mills is “committed to complying with all laws and ethics rules.” The statement noted that the Federal Election Commission recently dismissed a related complaint, and Mills and his team “trust the House Ethics Committee will come to a similar conclusion.” Mills has reportedly expressed an interest in running for statewide office in the 2026 election cycle. Whether his recent controversies would help or hurt his ambitions is unclear. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
Latest Post
Recommended
