Sen. Susan Collins’ office denied any wrongdoing in connection with a bombshell report Tuesday that said the Republican lawmaker had been under scrutiny by the FBI over alleged pay-to-play schemes involving a military contractor.
The investigation, conducted by the nonprofit outlet ProPublica, detailed how Martin Kao, the former chief executive of Navatek, disclosed information to the FBI after his arrest in 2020. He was accused of providing more than $200,000 in illegal campaign contributions to a pro-Collins’ super PAC, which came after Collins helped Navatek secure an $8 million military contract in Maine in 2019.
After Kao volunteered to expose pay-for-play schemes to reduce his prison sentence after pleading guilty, the FBI extensively questioned him about his involvement with Collins, according to the report.
Federal agents had apparently compiled sufficient evidence to open a sweeping investigation into several top lawmakers when President Donald Trump’s overhaul of the Justice Department last year led to the firings of personnel who were working on the case, the report said.
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Annie Clark, the deputy chief of staff for Collins, who is currently embroiled in a toss-up race for reelection, wrote on X that the lawmaker’s campaign “was never the target of the FBI investigation.”
Clark also argued that Kao’s track record of fraud and making false submissions makes him untrustworthy. Clark said that Kao “began making outlandish charges” while he awaited sentencing, “deflecting blame from himself and placing it on Senator Collins.”
The FBI did not believe Kao’s statements then and have not contacted Collins’ staff about Kao since 2021, Clark said. The FBI also told ProPublica that federal investigators “found nothing implicating Senator Collins or Senator Collins’ campaign” seven years ago.
“It is important to note that during the Biden Administration the FBI and the Department of Justice thoroughly investigated the Navatek matter,” Clark wrote in the post. ”The Collins campaign cooperated fully with the FBI throughout the investigation, producing all of the documents it requested and serving as fact witnesses in official settings.”
ProPublica reported that Kao met with Scott Reed, the head of Collins’ super PAC, towards the end of 2019 to secure more federal funding in exchange for a donation. Kao reportedly said Navatek would offer a sizable contribution on the condition that Collin knew where the money was coming from and also guarantee the company contracts, to which Reed agreed she would.
Because government contractors cannot make political donations, Kao reportedly used a shell company to send the money, which the FBI noticed and subsequently arrested him for. Kao’s indictment made no reference of wrongdoing on behalf of Collins or her campaign staff.
Reed told ProPublica in an email that he “never had any communications with Senator Collins [or] her staff about Martin Kao and/or Navatek.”
Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee for Maine’s Senate seat, said in a statement the report revealed “corruption of the highest order.” He said Maine needed answers about “every contract and every conversation that Collins and her team facilitated on the backs of taxpayers.”
“The jig is up,” he added.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who is closely affiliated with a super PAC that has donated millions to Collins’ reelection campaign this year, told reporters Tuesday that there has never been any indication that Collins or her campaign were implicated in pay-for-play schemes. He called the report a “political hit job.”
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