Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) invited a woman he has been dating to testify as an expert witness at a House subcommittee hearing he scheduled on a Syrian pipeline project, according to an independent journalist who published the claim Wednesday.
Roger Sollenberger, who has reported on the Florida Republican for nearly two years, posted the allegation on X. He added that Mills traveled to Syria several times without disclosing who paid for the trips. No such hearing appears on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s public schedule, which lists no upcoming hearings.
Sollenberger said he knew of no precedent. He wrote that he had never heard of a member of Congress “calling their (secret) girlfriend as an expert policy witness.”
The journalist claimed he heard Wednesday morning that the hearing might not go forward as planned, and that multiple members were alarmed.
Mills chairs the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Intelligence, a post that lets him set hearing topics and invite witnesses. He convened the panel’s July hearing on economic security zones.
The outgoing congressman lost his August primary to newscaster Ryan Elijah by nearly 13 points. His term, and his gavel, expire Jan. 3.
The House Ethics Committee voted last November to establish an investigative subcommittee. Its remit covers his financial disclosures and the campaign finance of his 2022 and 2024 races. It also covers gifts improperly accepted in connection with “privately sponsored officially-connected travel,” along with special favors tied to his office. Sexual misconduct, dating violence, and misuse of congressional resources round out the list. The committee said the step did not by itself indicate a violation occurred.
Mills traveled to Damascus in April 2025 with Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) and asked to meet Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa privately, Blaze News reported, spending 90 minutes with him and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani. Neither lawmaker had a State Department or Capitol Police security detail.
Kyle Shideler of the Center for Security Policy warned of an “appearance of impropriety” that foreign adversaries could exploit.
The subcommittee chairman had filed one gift travel report with ethics officials as of December, according to Sollenberger. A solo trip to Syria in September 2025, where he met the finance and information technology ministers, carried no public disclosure of its itinerary or funding.
Syria’s standing in Washington has changed since al-Sharaa took power. Secretary of State Marco Rubio took the country off the state sponsors of terrorism list in August, 47 years after it was added. Congress had already repealed the sanctions imposed under Bashar Assad.
The two-term Republican has denied wrongdoing. His office did not respond to Blaze News when it reported on the Damascus trip.
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