Collins rips report on pay-for-play allegations: ‘Partisan hit job’
The report says the FBI planned a 2024 probe into alleged pay-to-play donations, but the case stalled after corruption teams were cut.
- On Tuesday, ProPublica published a report alleging Republican Senator Susan Collins engaged in a "pay-to-play" scheme with defense contractor Martin Kao, who allegedly funneled campaign contributions in exchange for federal contracts.
- Kao alleged he sent $150,000 to a Collins-aligned super PAC through a shell company and later received $32 million in naval contracts, leveraging Collins' position on the Senate Appropriations Committee to steer federal funding to his company.
- Federal investigators probed Collins' campaign finances between 2020 and 2025, but the inquiry stalled after President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025 when the administration dismantled anti-corruption units assigned to the case.
- Annie Clark, Collins' deputy chief of staff, called the allegations "categorically false" and stated the campaign was never an FBI target; an FBI spokesperson told ProPublica the bureau found no evidence implicating the senator.
- With the election six weeks away, Democratic challenger Troy Jackson called the allegations "corruption of the highest order," while strategists warn the report could undermine Collins' reputation as an independent voice in the tightly contested Maine race.
106 Articles
106 Articles
Susan Collins Dismissed Navatek Scandal But Her Response Rings False
As the scandal over Susan Collins’ relationship with Hawaii defense contractor Navatek became the central issue in her hotly contested Senate campaign, she and her top aides mustered a defense with a series of incorrect and misleading claims.On September 22, ProPublica published an investigation into the senior senator from Maine’s relationship with Martin Kao, the former Navatek CEO and a major donor who told law enforcement he exchanged campai…
FBI Probe Allegations Shake Susan Collins's Senate Reelection Bid In Maine
A ProPublica investigation has thrust Senator Susan Collins into controversy just six weeks before the 2026 midterm elections, threatening her decades-long political standing in Maine. The report alleges Collins was linked to a pay-for-play scheme involving a Hawaii-based defense contractor that donated nearly $1 million to dozens of lawmakers in exchange for federal contracts. The […]
For the Left, there Is no Republican too moderate to target with...
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has earned a reputation as one of the Senate's most bipartisan and moderate members. But not even that willingness to work across the aisle spared the longtime senator from being ensnared by the left's lawfare machine. Leftist propaganda outlet ProPublica dropped a hit piece on Tuesday suggesting Collins and her 2020 Senate campaign were caught up in a Biden-era FBI investigation that probed allegations of a pay-to-p…
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