Woman is granted a protective order against Florida congressman

by · The Seattle Times

A judge issued a protective order against a Republican member of Congress from Florida on Tuesday, forbidding him to contact a former girlfriend who in court proceedings said he had threatened her with revenge porn after she broke up with him.

The lawmaker, Rep. Cory Mills, was also ordered to refrain from making any references on social media to his ex-girlfriend, Lindsey Langston, the reigning Miss United States, who had ended their relationship this year after Mills was linked to an assault investigation in Washington, D.C., involving another woman.

Mills, 45, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump who represents a district northeast of Orlando, has not been charged with a crime in connection with either episode. The Hill reported in August that the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington had closed its investigation of Mills.

In a 14-page order, Judge Fred Koberlein Jr. of Florida’s 3rd Judicial Circuit wrote that Langston had “reasonable cause to believe she is in imminent danger of becoming the victim of another act of dating violence without an injunction being entered.”

Mills’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Neither did his lawyer.

A lawyer for Langston said that she and her client would not comment on the order until Wednesday.

Mills is barred from being within 500 feet of Langston under the order, which included details about their tumultuous breakup.

It said that the two began dating in November 2021, when Langston was 22 and single and Mills was 41 and living apart from his spouse.

In February, Langston learned through news media reports that Mills was being investigated in connection with a report of an assault on a woman at his residence in Washington, D.C., the order said.

In seeking the order, Langston said that Mills had misled her about his relationship with the other woman, who in the days after the February episode denied that there had been a physical altercation.

At that point, Langston decided to end her relationship with Mills, according to the order, which stated that Langston had received a series of harassing messages in May and June from Mills.

In those messages, Mills had threatened to send sexually explicit videos of her to any men she might date, the order said. It noted that as Miss United States, Langston must observe a morality clause.

Mills had testified that he had never intended to send intimate images of Langston to other people and that he no longer possessed them.

“The court, considering the totality of the testimony and circumstances, does not find the respondent’s testimony concerning the intimate videos to be truthful,” Koberlein wrote.