Cory in the house (of ill repute)

Congressman Cory Mills of Florida is currently subject to a restraining order from a former girlfriend (and former Miss United States), after he threatened to release sexually explicit images of her. He also faces accusations of assault against a different woman, has been accused by fellow soldiers of “stolen valor” for which he received a Bronze Star, and is subject to a House Ethics Committee investigation for “improperly solicited and/or received gifts, including in connection with privately sponsored officially-connected travel.”

Good grief. Now NOTUS reports that while on a “rescue” mission to Afghanistan in 2021, when he was running for Congress, Mills was spotted with sex workers in the hallway of a hotel in Tbilisi, Georgia. Who among us hasn’t wanted to blow off a little steam while on a humanitarian-aid mission, though Cockburn’s methods usually don’t involve cavorting with Georgian filles de joie. Mills’s office hasn’t commented on the accusations, but Cockburn guesses that, as with everything else of which Mills is accused, they’ll say he did nothing wrong.

On our radar

ZOHDOWN President Trump is set for a 3 p.m. meeting with Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani of New York. Trump has repeatedly branded Mamdani a “communist.”

CHICKEN KYIV America is attempting to pressure Ukraine to agree to Steve Witkoff’s “peace plan” by Thanksgiving. President Volodymyr Zelensky gave an emergency address to the nation today opposing the plan and warning that Ukraine faces losing its “key partner” or its dignity.

WARN A BROTHER Paramount, Netflix and Comcast have all submitted bids to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery.

The Dao Prize’s Arabian Night

On Wednesday night, Cockburn headed to the National Journalism Center’s Dao Awards at the Salamander Hotel in Southwest DC (right by Congressman Mills’s place, coincidentally). The ceremony had undergone a late venue change thanks to a flood of foreign visitors. In its latest act against the freedom of journalists, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia clogged up traffic all over Northwest DC, delaying the arrival of most attendees to the Salamander by half an hour.

The evening included a series of derisive comments about “legacy media” and phony awards such as the Pulitzer. “The Truth,” on the other hand, was the guest of honor. Nominees included the Boston Globe and the Maine Wire, who claimed that the Chinese mafia are taking over rural Maine. The Federalist team took the grand prize of $100,000 for their stories debunking Russiagate. Eva Terry, who was this summer’s NJC intern at The Spectator, gave an emotional speech about how she’d broken the news of the Charlie Kirk assassination three weeks into her new role at Deseret News.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s stay at the Waldorf Astoria slowed down the roads around the White House – and in addition to the awards, the Salamander was hosting the spillover of the Saudi retinue. One female editor shared, “I heard a security guy say that the MBS bros kept trying to come down the escalators. Also one of the Saudis looked at me lustily and my husband threatened to bop him with his umbrella.”

Guests ate beef filets and took home special newspapers, printed for the event, full of work from the nominees.

Spotted: James Braid; Allison Schuster; Sean Spicer; Chris and Sarah Bedford; Emma Camp; Susan Crabtree; Mary Margaret Olohan; Amber and Jonathan Duke; Madeleine Kearns Tomaino and Nick Tomaino; Oliver Wiseman; Gabe Kaminsky; Aidan McLaughlin; Mollie and Mark Hemingway; Vanessa Santos; Billy Binion; Mary Katharine Ham; Dylan Housman and Reagan Reese, and Katie Pavlich.

Jersey Smollett

The US Attorney’s Office in New Jersey introduced some eye-catching charges this week against Natalie Greene, a staffer for Representative Jeff Van Drew, accusing her of staging a hate crime. According to the filing, a female co-conspirator called 911 in July, claiming that her and Greene had been attacked by a group of men due to Greene’s employment as a Republican staffer. The co-conspirator led law enforcement to Greene, who was zip-tied, had a series of cuts on her upper body and had the phrases “TRUMP WHORE” and Jeff Van Drew “IS RACIST” written on her in black marker.

But, the filing states, days before Greene had been in contact with a Pennsylvania-based “scarification artist” and had traveled to his parlor. The scarification artist “provided the investigators with copies of his Instagram messages with Greene. In these messages, Greene inquired about the available types of scarification patterns, and Greene sent a photo to [him] to show him the particular pattern of scarification she was interested in.” The pattern matches the wounds Greene had when found by law enforcement. Her co-conspirator also searched “zip ties near me,” according to cell-phone data.

The 26-year-old faces one count of conspiracy to convey false statements and hoaxes and one count of making false statements to federal-law enforcement. Her motive, at this stage, is unclear. “We hope she’s getting the care she needs,” a spokesperson for Van Drew told the press.

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