Representative Cory Mills, a Florida Republican, faces serious allegations from his ex-girlfriend, Lindsey Langston, who claims he threatened to release sexually explicit videos and images of her after their February 2025 breakup. Langston, the 2024 Miss United States, filed a police report in Columbia County, Florida, supported by text and Instagram messages, alleging harassment and threats against her future partners. Mills, also under scrutiny for an unrelated alleged assault in Washington, D.C., denies the claims, labeling them as politically motivated by former rival Anthony Sabatini. While these accusations, under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as of August 10, 2025, could damage Mills’ reputation, they pale in comparison to some of the more egregious scandals involving Washington, D.C. politicians in history, where power and corruption often intertwined with far greater consequences.
Historically, D.C. politicians have been embroiled in scandals that dwarf Mills’ personal misconduct in scope and impact. Take the case of Senator Bob Packwood in the 1990s, who resigned after 29 women accused him of sexual harassment and assault, including groping and forced kissing, with allegations spanning decades and implicating his abuse of Senate authority. Similarly, the ABSCAM scandal of the late 1970s saw multiple congressmen, including Senator Harrison Williams, convicted of bribery and conspiracy for accepting bribes from FBI agents posing as Arab sheikhs, exposing systemic corruption. These cases, involving abuse of public office and widespread betrayal of trust, had far-reaching consequences, undermining public faith in governance and leading to criminal convictions, unlike the uncharged allegations against Mills, which remain confined to a personal dispute.
For MAGA supporters, Mills’ situation is a distraction from their vision of a New Golden Age, where strong leadership overrides personal controversies, much like they dismiss past D.C. scandals as establishment excess. Yet, for marginalized groups—people of color, women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and those outside elite circles—Mills’ alleged threats echo the “bad old days” of unchecked privilege, though they lack the systemic weight of historical scandals like Packwood’s or ABSCAM. The D.C. Circuit’s recent rulings against executive overreach, such as its defense of congressional spending powers, underscore the importance of accountability, a principle that applies to both Mills’ personal conduct and the broader legacy of D.C.’s political misdeeds. While Mills’ accusations are serious, they don’t reach the scale of past D.C. scandals that reshaped political landscapes and exposed deep institutional rot.
