Ed Martin — the D.C. federal attorney who recently referred to himself as “President Trump’s lawyer” — may be expanding his partisan services to other embattled Republicans. Martin declined to sign off on an arrest warrant against MAGA Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), who last week was accused of physically assaulting a 27-year-old woman with whom he was having an affair.
On Feb. 19, D.C. Metropolitan Police (MPD) responded to an incident at the two-term congressman’s residence in Southwest D.C. According to a copy of a police report obtained by local News4, Mills “grabbed” the woman, “shoved her, and pushed her out of the door.”
Police wrote that the victim had “bruises on her arm which appeared fresh,” adding that the woman had let the responding officers listen to a phone call in which Mills instructed her “to lie about the origin of her bruises.”
“Eventually, [Mills] made contact with police and admitted that the situation escalated from verbal to physical, but it was severe enough to create bruising,” the report continued.
When officers informed Mills he would be arrested, the victim returned to them and recanted several details about the altercation. Two subsequent reports obtained by News4 contained scant details about how police planned to proceed with the case, with one describing the incident as a “family disturbance.”
Officers declined to take Mills into custody, but it seems the department felt the encounter merited detention. An arrest warrant was created for Mills on Friday and sent to the U.S. Attorney for ratification. Martin’s office refused to sign the warrant, instead returning the case to MPD for further investigation.
Mills’ office issued a statement responding to the allegations on Friday: “This week, law enforcement was asked to resolve a private matter at Congressman Mills’ residence. Congressman Mills vehemently denies any wrongdoing whatsoever, and is confident any investigation will clear this matter quickly.”
The alleged victim told Politico in her own statement that she had “reached out to law enforcement to address a personal matter” and had been “severely jet-lagged and sleep-deprived” at the time of the incident. “While the personal matter in question was emotionally charged, there was no physical altercation … This is a deeply personal matter that is being unfairly exploited for political purposes or other motives.”
D.C. law allows police to conduct an arrest at the scene of an intra-family dispute “based upon probable cause rather than obtaining an arrest warrant” if the officer has cause to believe the abuse “resulted in physical injury, including physical pain or illness,” or was “intended to cause reasonable fear of imminent serious physical injury or death.”
Training documents from the Metropolitan Police Academy instruct officers that their assessment of a domestic violence incident — and the need for a lawful arrest — should not be influenced by “a statement from the victim that the victim does not want the suspect arrested,” or “the fact that the suspect or victim is a law enforcement officer or public official.”
MPD told News4 that they have launched an internal investigation into why no arrest was made at the scene, and why the incident was listed as a family disturbance in a subsequent report, and not an assault.
“Once MPD leadership became aware of this matter there was an immediate review of our initial response to ensure all procedures were followed. MPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau is currently investigating this matter,” the department said.
