The Department of Justice has launched an active criminal investigation into Rep. Cory Mills, the Florida Republican already facing a House Ethics Committee probe and a resolution to expel him from Congress, and Mills says he had no idea it was coming.
A source familiar with the matter told Fox News that the DOJ investigation is underway, though the specifics of what federal prosecutors are examining remain unknown. Mills has not been charged with any crimes. He has denied wrongdoing across every allegation that has surfaced over the past year and a half.
The federal probe adds a new and far more serious layer to a mounting set of problems for the two-term congressman. Mills already faces a House Ethics Committee investigation that began in November 2025, a bipartisan push for his resignation, and an expulsion resolution filed by a fellow Republican. Now the Justice Department, with its subpoena power and ability to bring criminal charges, has entered the picture.
Mills's response to the news was blunt. Newsmax reported that when asked about the federal investigation, Mills said:
"This is the first I'm hearing about it."
That claim, that a sitting member of Congress who serves on both the House Armed Services Committee and the House Intelligence Committee was unaware the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation into his conduct, will strike many observers as either extraordinary or implausible. Either way, it underscores how rapidly Mills's situation has deteriorated.
Newsmax's reporting added that at least one person has been contacted by the FBI about Mills's finances and alleged misconduct, and that the probe focuses at least in part on individuals in his orbit. The congressman has refused to resign.
The allegations against Mills are not limited to one category. They stretch across personal conduct, military service claims, campaign finance, and government contracts.
In February 2025, Mills was accused of domestic abuse. Five months later, in July 2025, a separate allegation emerged that he had threatened to release explicit images of a romantic partner, conduct that, if proven, could constitute blackmail under federal or state law. Mills has denied both allegations.
The House Ethics Committee opened its investigation in November 2025, and the traditionally secretive panel took the unusual step of issuing a public statement in April confirming the inquiry was still active. The committee said its investigation involves "sexual misconduct and/or dating violence." It did not set a timeline for completing its work. The Ethics Committee has pursued similar investigations into other members in recent months, but the Mills case stands out for the sheer breadth of the accusations.
Newsmax reported that the Ethics Committee authorized nearly 20 subpoenas, gathered thousands of documents, and contacted dozens of witnesses as part of its probe, a scale that suggests the panel is treating this as more than a routine inquiry.
In April, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina filed a resolution to expel Mills from the House. The resolution accused him of misrepresenting his military service, sexual misconduct, campaign finance violations, and illicit involvement in federal contracts as a sitting member of Congress, among other charges.
Mace, a Republican, offered a withering summary of the case against her colleague. She told Newsmax:
"The evidence against Mills is overwhelming: beating women and telling them to lie about it, cyberstalking women, lying about his military service, and profiting off his seat."
Those are allegations, not adjudicated findings. But they came from a member of Mills's own party who was willing to put her name on an expulsion resolution, a step the House has taken only a handful of times in its history. The status of that resolution remains unclear. House GOP leaders have reportedly declined to act on it while the Ethics Committee investigation continues, a decision that has drawn criticism from members who want faster accountability.
That pattern, leadership deferring action while investigations grind forward, has become a recurring frustration on Capitol Hill. A broader pattern of ethics failures and delayed consequences has left voters wondering whether the system is designed to hold members accountable or to shield them.
The DOJ investigation carries weight that a congressional ethics probe does not. The Ethics Committee can censure, reprimand, or recommend expulsion, but it cannot indict. The Justice Department can.
The fact that the FBI has already contacted at least one person about Mills's finances and alleged misconduct suggests the investigation has moved past a preliminary review. Federal investigators do not typically begin making witness contacts unless they have identified specific conduct worth examining.
Mills serves on two of the most sensitive committees in Congress, Armed Services and Intelligence. Both handle classified material and oversee billions in defense spending. A criminal investigation into a member who sits on those panels raises questions about whether Mills should retain his committee assignments while the probe is active. Neither House leadership nor the committees have publicly addressed that question.
Speaker Johnson has already moved to address misconduct within the House GOP conference in other contexts, backing broader bans on lawmaker-staff relationships after separate allegations rocked the caucus. Whether that willingness to act extends to the Mills case remains to be seen.
Mills was first elected in 2022 and won re-election in 2024. He is seeking a third term this November, a campaign that will now unfold under the shadow of a federal criminal investigation, an active Ethics Committee probe, and an unresolved expulsion resolution from a member of his own party.
The Washington Examiner reported that the Ethics Committee launched its formal probe ahead of a censure vote, a timeline that suggests the committee acted in part to preempt congressional action with its own process. Whether that process will produce results before voters go to the polls is an open question.
Federal investigations into sitting members of Congress are not unprecedented but remain rare. The DOJ's decision to open a criminal probe into Mills puts him in a small and unwelcome category. The Justice Department has opened similar investigations into other sitting lawmakers, but each case turns on its own facts, and in Mills's case, the full scope of those facts remains unknown even to the congressman himself, if his public statements are taken at face value.
Several critical questions remain unanswered. What specific conduct triggered the DOJ investigation? Is the federal probe related to the Ethics Committee's work, or does it cover separate ground? Will House leadership take any action on Mills's committee assignments? And will the Ethics Committee complete its investigation before the November election, or will voters be asked to render their own verdict first?
Conservatives rightly demand accountability from every institution in American life. That standard does not stop at the doors of Congress, and it cannot bend for party affiliation.
