Donald Trump's Justice Department has launched an investigation into Rep. Cory Mills, a Florida Republican already facing a two-year House Ethics Committee probe, adding federal scrutiny to a growing list of allegations that includes assault, sexual extortion, and campaign finance violations.
A person familiar with the matter confirmed the DOJ probe to the Daily Mail, though the specific focus of the investigation remains unclear. Mills' office did not respond to a request for comment on the federal inquiry. The congressman, first elected in 2022 to represent Florida's 7th District, now faces simultaneous investigations from the Justice Department, the bipartisan House Ethics Committee, and Florida state law enforcement, a convergence of legal pressure that few sitting members of Congress have weathered.
The DOJ probe lands on top of allegations that have already drawn public demands from within Mills' own party. Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, has called for Mills to be stripped of his responsibilities over the misconduct claims. And Mills' longtime chief of staff and chief counsel, Catherine Treadwell, abruptly resigned earlier this month, leaving behind a resignation letter with a single memorable line.
"The horrors persist, but I do not."
Treadwell thanked her co-workers in the letter but offered no further public explanation of what prompted her departure. The word "horrors", from someone who served as both Mills' top staffer and his chief legal adviser, hung without elaboration.
Among the allegations trailing Mills is a 2025 police incident report filed by Sarah Raviani, his then-girlfriend, who was 27 at the time. The report listed the offense under investigation as "simple assault" at Mills' apartment, with the weapon category marked as "hands and feet."
Raviani later gave a statement to the Daily Mail that walked back the severity of the encounter. She said she had reached out to police to address a "personal matter" and described the situation as "emotionally charged."
"While the personal matter in question was emotionally charged, there was no physical altercation."
She added that she was "severely jet-lagged and sleep-deprived" after a 14-hour flight and had been drinking on vacation, noting she had a drink in front of her when officers arrived. Mills called the assault allegation "patently false."
The gap between the police report's formal language, "simple assault," "hands and feet", and Raviani's subsequent characterization of the event as a misunderstanding raises questions that neither party has fully resolved in public statements. The Trump administration's Justice Department has shown willingness to pursue probes that cut across party lines, and whether this incident factors into the federal investigation is unknown.
A separate and more detailed set of allegations comes from Lindsey Langston, 25, the winner of Miss United States 2024 and a Florida Republican state committee member. Langston filed a report with the Columbia County Sheriff's Department alleging that Mills threatened her repeatedly after their relationship ended.
The sheriff's report states that Langston told authorities she and Mills were in a romantic relationship from November 2021 to February 2025 and that she lived at his home in New Smyrna Beach during that period. She said she left Mills after seeing reports that he had another girlfriend.
What followed, according to the report, was a campaign of alleged intimidation. The document states:
"Since February 20th of 2025, Cory has contacted Lindsey numerous times on numerous different accounts threatening to release nude images and videos of her, to include recorded videos of her and Cory engaging in sexual acts."
The report continued:
"Lindsey also provided text messages and Instagram messages between her and Cory, which consisted of Cory threatening to harm any men Lindsey intended to date in the future."
Langston provided those messages to authorities as evidence. Steven Khachigan, a spokesman for the Columbia County Sheriff's Department, told the Daily Mail that Langston's claims were later shared with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for further review. The current status of that state-level review has not been disclosed.
Mills denied Langston's allegations directly.
"These claims are false and misrepresent the nature of my interactions. I have always conducted myself with integrity, both personally and in service to Florida's 7th District."
Before the Justice Department entered the picture, Mills had already spent roughly two years under investigation by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee. That probe has encompassed allegations of campaign finance violations, misuse of congressional resources, and sexual misconduct. No formal findings or conclusions from the Ethics Committee have been made public.
The DOJ's involvement with sitting lawmakers carries its own political weight, and the fact that this investigation comes from a Republican-led Justice Department removes the easy defense that it is partisan overreach. Mills attempted that framing anyway in an April interview with NewsNation, calling the broader scrutiny "obviously a political, Democratic tit-for-tat."
He also pushed back against comparisons to former Rep. Eric Swalwell, the 45-year-old California Democrat who resigned from office and suspended his gubernatorial campaign after five women publicly accused him of sexual misconduct.
"One, I'm not married, so there's one thing. Two, I've never sexually harassed and or have any complaints by any staffers or interns on the Hill. It's just not even a fair comparison."
Mills' marital status, however, is itself a contested point. He has a longtime wife, Rana Al Saadi, and as of September 2025, divorce proceedings were reportedly still underway. A former staffer recently told the Daily Mail they were unsure whether Mills' divorce agreement had been completed.
The pressure on Mills is not coming only from investigators. Nancy Mace's demand that he be stripped of his responsibilities represents a public break from a fellow Republican, one who has herself navigated contentious political terrain and is not easily dismissed as a partisan actor against her own caucus.
Treadwell's resignation may prove more damaging in the long run. A chief of staff who also served as chief counsel would have had direct knowledge of Mills' official conduct, his use of congressional resources, and the internal handling of the allegations against him. Her departure, and the pointed tone of her resignation letter, strips Mills of a senior ally at the moment he needs institutional loyalty most.
Expulsion from the House remains a remote possibility but not an unthinkable one. Only six members have ever been expelled, with the most recent being former New York Rep. George Santos in 2023. Removal requires a two-thirds vote, a threshold that is almost never reached unless the evidence becomes overwhelming and bipartisan support for action builds. The federal judiciary and DOJ have shown increased willingness to act on misconduct findings, and whether that dynamic reaches Mills depends on what the investigation uncovers.
Mills' office has issued blanket denials. His public posture has been to dismiss the allegations as politically motivated and to insist that investigations will clear him. But the facts on the public record, a police report listing assault, a sheriff's report describing alleged threats to release intimate images, a two-year Ethics Committee investigation, a DOJ probe, a chief of staff who resigned citing "horrors," and a fellow Republican demanding consequences, paint a picture of a congressman whose problems are compounding faster than his denials can keep pace.
Conservative voters in Florida's 7th District deserve a representative whose conduct matches the standards they expect from their own families and neighbors. If Mills is innocent, the investigations will show it. If he is not, his party should not be the last to act.
