Overview
- Mace, using her five minutes in a House Armed Services Committee hearing with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, accused Mills of stolen valor and entered documents into the record as part of her push to expel him.
- She cited statements from former soldiers who dispute Mills’s account tied to his 2021 Bronze Star for actions in Iraq in 2003, including Private First Class Joe Heit saying Mills was not there.
- Mace said a retired brigadier general described the Bronze Star process as administrative and not an independent verification of specific acts, which she argued weakens Mills’s citation.
- She also filed photos and court records, including an image that appears to show Mills wearing a Bronze Star before it was awarded, a photo described as showing him with a Russian sex worker in Afghanistan, and a Florida restraining order tied to alleged dating violence.
- Mills denies wrongdoing and defends his service record as proven by paperwork, while House leaders signal deference to the ongoing Ethics Committee probe and note that expulsion would require a two‑thirds vote.