Ethics Office: Rep. Cory Mills’ Companies Likely Had Federal Contracts While He Was in Office

The Office of Congressional Conduct found “substantial reason to believe” that Florida Rep. Cory Mills’ defense contracting companies had contracts with the federal government while he was a member of Congress, according to its 2024 report released for the first time by the House Ethics Committee Thursday.

Though there are exceptions, this could be a violation of House rules, standards of conduct and federal law, the OCC found.

Last year, the OCC (formerly the Office of Congressional Ethics) completed a months-long inquiry into Mills and recommended the House Ethics Committee further review his conduct.

The Ethics committee said it is continuing to review allegations that Mills’ companies had contracts with the federal government while he was in office, that Mills omitted or misrepresented information on financial disclosure reports and that Mills’ campaign committee accepted excessive contributions. The matter was sent to the House Ethics Committee in August 2024. In December 2024, the committee announced it would be “extending the matter.”

The OCC recommended the committee dismiss allegations that Mills’ campaign committee accepted excessive in-kind contributions and that Mills accepted an impermissible gift, as it did not find substantial reason to support the alleged violations.

Mills is the owner of Pacem Solutions and Pacem Defense, which are involved in security and ammunition dealing domestically and internationally. An adjacent company, ALS, Inc., was not listed in any of Mills’ financial disclosures despite the company being affiliated with the others, according to the OCC.

Prior to Mills’ election to Congress, his companies were engaged in contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars with the federal government. According to the committee’s findings, largely based on government documents, entities owned by Mills continued to receive contracts from the federal government after he became a member of Congress.

The OCC added that Mills did not cooperate with its inquiry. Mills hired outside counsel to interact with the committee on his behalf and extended that same counsel to witnesses that the committee attempted to obtain information from.

“While the OCE was able to obtain some documentary evidence from publicly available sources, many key witnesses, including Rep. Mills, refused to cooperate with this review,” the OCC wrote. “This concerted effort to limit OCE’s access to relevant information, often from witnesses also represented by Rep. Mills’s attorney, undermined these investigative efforts.”

In February, Washington, D.C. police investigated Mills for an alleged assault. Mills denied any wrongdoing.

Mills did not immediately respond to NOTUS’ request for comment.

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Violet Jira is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.