GOP Rep. Cory Mills explains why he was married by a radical Islamic cleric

Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), a rising star in Republican circles and on TV news, told Blaze News he was married by a radical Muslim cleric but did not realize it at the time.

Mills rocketed to the heights of political celebrity over the past four years, thanks to his television appearances, several high-profile rescues of Americans from Israel, Afghanistan, and Haiti, and the support of President Donald Trump. Mills was an Army medic from 1999 to 2003 and a private subcontractor in Iraq and the Middle East from 2005 to 2009. He has represented Florida’s East Coast 7th Congressional District since 2022, when he rode Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “red wave” into office.

Running on a pro-Christian, America First platform, Mills’ website says: “Cory is a father, patriot, combat veteran, entrepreneur, foreign policy expert, and true American conservative.”

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Domestic disturbance

On February 19, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department answered a domestic disturbance call at Mills’ luxury penthouse. According to local NBC affiliate News4, the news station obtained a police report stating that Sarah Raviani, 27, an Iranian-American activist, told police that “her significant other for over a year” had “grabbed her, shoved her, and pushed her out of the door.”

The police report, as reported by the NBC affiliate, states that she showed the officer “bruises on her arm which appeared fresh.” An officer was “able to immediately identify [the alleged victim] out of all other patrons in the lobby by her demeanor: physically shaking and scared.”

Here is an Instagram post with Raviani and Mills.

The report also states, according to WRC-TV, that the police officer informed the individual about the impending arrest. However, the woman later contacted the police to retract her statements, including the source of the bruises. Mills and Raviani subsequently denied any wrongdoing, and Mills was not charged with a crime.

Although infidelity is commonplace in Congress, the incident raised more than a few eyebrows in Washington. In his statement about the incident, Mills revealed that he is still in the process of divorcing his wife, Rana Al Saadi, a naturalized American citizen from Iraq. According to multiple sources, Mills had routinely claimed he was no longer married. Even some members of his own staff were apparently unaware before Raviani called the police that he was, in fact, still married.

Mills told Blaze News recently that “we’ve been going through divorce proceedings for 2.5 years and have been separated for three years.”

In 2022, during Mills’ primary race for Congress against fellow Republican Anthony Sabatini, a website, Cory Mills Watch, published a document it claimed was the 2014 marriage certificate for Mills and Al Saadi. Last month, an ex-Daily Beast journalist named Roger Sollenberger began posting about the document again on X.

Mills has apparently never publicly addressed the issue, until now.

Married in a radical mosque?

Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic CenterBlaze News

After looking into the domestic disturbance call, Blaze News obtained and verified the marriage certificate with the state of Virginia. It cites the officiant as being a radical Islamic mufti named Mohammed Al-Hanooti, the former imam for the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center, reputed to be the most extremist mosque in America.

Blaze News reached out for comment from both Mills and Al Saadi to set the record straight, asking for confirmation concerning their religious status and the officiant of their wedding. Rana Al Saadi has not responded.

In a combative, often heated, near hour-long phone call with Blaze Media editor Peter Gietl, Mills confirmed he was married by Al-Hanooti, but vehemently denied converting to Islam. “It’s pretty pathetic. This attempt has been used so many times, and it’s baffling to me. Not to mention the fact that I am a Christian — I’m not an Islamophobic. I’ve lived in Middle Eastern cultures. I think that the radicalized stuff is pretty harmful and disgusting, but I would say that on any side of things. But this has been attempted so many times. And it’s just downright offensive at this point,” Mills stated.

It is unclear how many times anyone has “attempted” to ask Mills about his marriage certificate other than during his congressional primary race. While few paid attention at the time, Sabatini and his supporters were called “bigots” by supporters of Mills for bringing the certificate and related issues up in the race.

Mills said that asking these questions was out of bounds. “And I don’t think you guys understand, because I spent 10 years in the culture in that region. You guys need to educate yourself, because you come across very ignorant, bigotry, and it just makes you guys sound very, very, I guess, lack of American plurality.”

Mills marriage certificate

The Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, has been linked to several individuals engaged in terrorism-related activities, resulting in scrutiny from law enforcement and the public.

Anwar al-Awlaki served as imam at Dar Al-Hijrah from January 2001 to April 2002. Initially viewed as moderate, al-Awlaki later became a prominent al-Qaeda propagandist and terror leader. He was later linked to the radicalization of individuals such as Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter who killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 in November 2009, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab — the Underwear Bomber — who tried to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. In 2010, President Barack Obama ordered al-Awlaki’s death by authorizing a U.S. drone strike in Yemen. He was killed on September 30, 2011.

Two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Hani Hanjour, also attended the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in early 2001. Other individuals associated with the mosque include Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a former Dar Al-Hijrah congregant, who was convicted in 2005 of plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush.

YouTube/Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center

Mohammed Al-Hanooti, who officiated Mills’ wedding in 2014, is perhaps best known for being an unindicted co-conspirator in both the 2008 Holy Land Foundation Hamas financing trial and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing plot.

He served as imam at Dar Al-Hijrah from 1995 to 1999, drawing heavy scrutiny from the national security and counterterrorism communities. His sermons included radical calls for jihad. In a 1998 khutbah, he declared, "We have to do everything we can to help the Iraqi people from tyrannies. ... We all have to be ready for the jihad with our properties and our souls." He also stated, "Allah will rain his curse on the Americans and the British," and "the curse of Allah will become true on the Jews."

Al-Hanooti had deep ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. According to a 2003 FBI memo cited in reports by the Investigative Project on Terrorism and Global Muslim Brotherhood Watch, Al-Hanooti was believed to be a key fundraiser for Hamas in the United States. His associations, along with his rhetoric, cast a long shadow over the mosque even after his departure.

Mills sets the record straight?

These facts were all well known in 2014, when the then-77-year-old Al-Hanooti, serving as mufti of the D.C. area, officiated the marriage of Mills and his wife and listed the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque as his address. Since Mills has publicly presented himself as Christian for years, people who first encounter the document are puzzled. According to the mosque’s website, the individuals it marries must be Muslim. A few weeks ago, after Blaze News called the mosque inquiring about the certificate, this requirement was apparently removed from the website.

At least one associate of Mills, speaking on background for fear of reprisal, told Blaze News that Mills became a practicing Muslim after marrying Al Saadi.

Although it seems highly unlikely that a mufti like Al-Hanooti would officiate a marriage of a non-Muslim, Mills says that the situation was complicated.

“I don’t know the damn guy. I didn’t have a relationship with the guy, so I can’t tell you anything other than the fact that he was sick,” Mills told Blaze News. (Al-Hanooti died within a year after signing the certificate.) “I don't know anything about his involvement in the co-conspirator thing,” he said. “And then he died — I think, I don't know — months later.”

Mills explained that at the time, his wife needed to visit a dying relative in Iraq, but if she entered Iraq without the marriage certificate, she “would’ve been arrested” because her first husband in Iraq “wasn’t a good man” and “all he had to do was say she wasn’t divorced within Iraq, therefore the marriage is still valid. And that she has another child, therefore she is unfaithful, and they can detain her, they can take their property rights, they can get a dowry for him.”

Al-Hanooti was ”the only Iraqi imam that her mom [could] get in contact with who would do this for us.”

“I will do anything to protect my family. So if having her mother find someone who is willing to just sign something so she doesn’t get arrested when she goes to visit her dying uncle, who’s her last remaining male Al Saadi … yeah, you’re damn right, I have no problem whatsoever, because it didn’t change my faith, it didn’t change who I am, it didn’t change the church that I went to. So yeah, enjoy your hit piece.”

Blaze News reached out to Robert Spencer, the founder and editor of Jihad Watch and one of the country’s foremost experts on radical Islam, on whether Mills could have been married there without converting to Islam.

It doesn’t sound plausible. Al-Hanooti had multiple ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. … Any imam who had their approval, and who approved of the Brotherhood, had to be well versed in Sharia and loyal to its provisions.

Sharia stipulates that a Muslim woman may not marry a Christian or any other non-Muslim man. This is based on the Qur’an. ... A Muslim man may marry a Christian woman … but a Muslim woman cannot marry a Christian man and become part of his household, for then the Christian community would grow at the expense of the Muslim one, and Islam must dominate.

Thus it is virtually certain that Al-Hanooti, as a knowledgeable and believing imam, required Mills to convert to Islam before he married Rana Al Saadi.

Spencer speculates that maybe "the whole thing was quick and involved Mills saying the shahada in Arabic at the mosque with little understanding of what he was saying, or interest in the proceedings, so he can dismiss it now and may not have even realized what he was doing, but he wouldn’t have been able to marry Al Saadi otherwise."

Mills threatens Blaze Media

Mills bristled at being asked about the marriage certificate and his religion, and he referred to his lawyers throughout the interview. He accused Blaze News of rushing the article and engaging in “fake news.”

When asked if he was threatening Blaze News, he said, “I don't think it's threatening with lawsuits, but I think that when there's defamation, libel, malice, and slander, then we need to basically make sure that that's something that's on notice, right?” He ended his rant on the matter by saying, “But you can call it a threat or whatever you like. Please go ahead.”

Blaze News editor in chief Matthew Peterson responded, “I find it odd that the congressman assumed we were writing a hit piece in response to two basic questions about his religion and marriage. I tried to follow up with him multiple times for a week after his initial remarks to Peter Gietl, but he did not speak with us again.”

Peterson rejected the idea that the issue is out of bounds. “He’s a sitting congressman who owns an international arms company that he started with his wife shortly after getting married by a radical Muslim cleric. There may be a perfectly understandable explanation for this, but if you’ve never given public comment on it, you should not be threatening my reporters for asking about it. People on the left and right are starting to chatter, and we wanted to share his explanation with our audience.”

Part of Mills’ complaint was that “you guys don't talk about the fact that I've had a rosary tattooed my arm since [2001 or ‘02] and now still have the archangel tattooed on. People who are Muslim don't do that.”

Mills had a rosary tattoo on his left arm for many years. Photos from his social media account indicate that he was attempting to get rid of it. As a congressman in 2023, Mills covered the image of a rosary with another tattoo of St. Michael the Archangel. St. Michael is recognized by both the Catholic and Islamic faiths.

He also complained that “you guys aren't reaching out to my churches that I go to regularly. … You guys don't do that, right?”

Mills has consistently and publicly identified as a Christian, repeatedly invoking his Christian faith to his constituents. In 2021, his wife said she was not Christian.

His Wikipedia page says he is Catholic. From a Floridian article: "Al Saadi, who worked for the Trump administration in Iraq gathering intelligence, is a 'believer in God' and attends Mass with her [sic] Mills, who is a devout Catholic."

In 2022, in response to an accusation from Mills’ primary opponent Anthony Sabatini, Word of Faith Pastor Cheryl Ingram, who hosted a congressional campaign event for Mills, claimed that Al Saadi “went to a Jesuit Catholic school,” “graduated from Georgetown,” and is Catholic.

More recently, he has told other sources he is Protestant. He told Blaze News that he now regularly attends a Word of Faith church in Florida, where his pastors are Cheryl and Steve Ingram.

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PACEM Defense

Shortly after marrying in 2014, Mills and Al Saadi started two companies (defense consulting and munition manufacturing) and acquired ALS Less Lethal, a military and law enforcement equipment manufacturer. According to Mills, these businesses made him and his wife wealthy and propelled his run for Congress. He told Glenn Beck last year that “I have more than I ever need.”

Al Saadi worked as a cultural adviser for the U.S. Department of State, was a translator for the Department of Defense in the Green Zone, and assisted U.S. intelligence during the invasion of her country. According to the Arlington Catholic Herald, she claimed to have lived in a 10-bedroom house in Iraq, and her family was from the political leadership of the country. Al Saadi has also said after her family was persecuted for supporting the United States, she came to the U.S. with “only $50” before starting an international weapons company with Mills.

Al Saadi with a luxury Maserati

Their company grew quickly. The year after PACEM was founded, the company secured a $228 million arms deal with Iraq. A subsequent audit said that the government of Iraq had “accepted the pricing and the specs supplied by the company for the product, without … asking any of the official trusted consultants to write up specs and details of pricing,” according to Business Insider. Mills told Business Insider there was nothing wrong with the contract, although his company did not receive the full amount for reasons unrelated to the audit.

Last year, the Office of Congressional Conduct board, formerly the Office of Congressional Ethics, stated that Mills' conflicting financial statements triggered inquiries into how he acquired $1.8 million to support his 2022 campaign. This report, crafted in August 2024, remained confidential until March 27, 2025, as the House Ethics Committee continued its investigation.

Mills responded on X by saying:

“I’m committed to complying with all laws and ethics rules and was pleased that the Federal Election Commission recently dismissed a complaint with similar allegations also filed by my former primary opponent. We trust the House Ethics Committee will come to a similar conclusion."

Mills indicated to Blaze News that the complaint was part of a political witch hunt, “filed by my primary opponent.” “People think OCC is a part of the Ethics Committee. It's not … it’s an outside entity which is known to have partisan bias.” Mills also said the complaint “has already been dismissed by the FEC ... and I guarantee you that the Ethics Committee does the exact same thing.”

Conflict of interest?

Mills, who serves on the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees, claimed on "The Glenn Beck Podcast" last year that “we still own 100% of that company, which I divested and put in a blind trust.”

When questioned by Blaze News, he said: “I believe I'm in a blind trust. Okay? I think I've divested from one company, and I think I'm in a blind trust for another. I'd have to go back and look; I couldn't honestly tell you, well, you're talking about something that I did, I think, in 2020, I mean, almost four years ago.”

When pressed further about his financial relationship with the company, he responded definitively: “I don't take money from the company. I don't get money from the company.” He also repeatedly told Blaze News that “I have zero decision-making in this company” and that he was not involved in company business.

Critics have questioned his foreign trips and meetings with various government officials. In response, Mills told Blaze News “Yes, I'm entitled to go on certain vacations, and yes, I'm allowed to go to countries that my former company worked in or had an office in. Wow, what a novel idea.” In 2025, Mills visited Kuwait over New Year's and met with the Iraqi prime minister; Dubai over Valentine's Day; and Syria and Turkey over Easter. Mills responded sarcastically to his critics: “When I went to Dubai, I went on vacation for Valentine's Day. Imagine.”

Perhaps coincidentally, 200,000 attendees of the world’s largest biannual weapons expo, IDEX, were in Dubai on Valentine’s Day weekend.

Over Easter, Mills also did more than vacation, holding well-publicized talks with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and other Syrian officials. An organization called the Syrian American Alliance for Peace and Prosperity claimed it paid for the trip. Mills told Blaze News that he was optimistic about change in Syria. “I think that there's an opportunity here to get another person who's willing to sign up to the Abraham Accords, who's willing to look at acknowledging the state of Israel, who's willing to be a good partner.”

After Business Insider published an article investigating Mills’ relationship to the company while serving in Congress, “Pacem Solutions removed the ‘Who We Are’ page that listed Mills as executive chair,” according to Business Insider.

Rana Al Saadi is now the executive chairwoman of PACEM.

Al Saadi receiving a gift in Dubai.

Editor's Note: Matthew J. Peterson, Cooper Williamson, and Steve Baker contributed to this article.