“We deserve answers about every contract and every conversation that Collins and her team facilitated on the backs of taxpayers. The jig is up.”
Maine Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson speaks at a town hall on September 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine.
(Photo by Joseph Prezioso/Getty Images)
Brad Reed
Sep 22, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Maine Democratic US Senate candidate Troy Jackson pounced on Tuesday after ProPublica published a damning story putting incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins at the center of what the publication described as a “sprawling pay-to-play operation.”
In a statement released shortly after the ProPublica story dropped, Jackson accused Collins of engaging in “corruption of the highest order.”
“Susan Collins delivered millions in taxpayer dollars for a corrupt donor bankrolling her campaign,” said Jackson, “and then [President] Donald Trump helped her cover it up.”
The ProPublica report unearthed internal records revealing an FBI investigation into defense contractor Navatek, now known as Martin Defense Group, for making campaign contributions to politicians in exchange for federal contracts.
According to ProPublica, former Navatek CEO Martin Kao told a group of FBI agents and federal prosecutors in 2022 about a 2019 meeting he’d had with the head of a pro-Collins super political action committee where he committed to cut a big check to the Maine Republican’s campaign if she steered federal cash to his company.
After the meeting, ProPublica wrote, Kao “sent an initial $150,000 to the Collins super PAC using the shell company” and then told Navatek executives in an internal email two months later that “Collins committed to getting the company $32 million in naval contracts.”
The alleged corruption outlined in the report went far beyond Collins, as Kao also provided FBI agents with a 50-page document that named “dozens of lobbyists, congressional staffers, and members of Congress who he said helped him trade cash for contracts.”
However, the probe into Kao’s alleged efforts to bribe politicians was shut down shortly after Trump returned to the White House in 2025, which Jackson said may explain why Collins “voted with him 96% of the time and has rubber-stamped his agenda to hurt Maine.”
“Susan Collins doesn’t care,” Jackson added, “that we’re losing our healthcare that ICE is killing people on the streets, and that we’ve been dragged into a pointless war—as long as her donors get their contracts and her coffers get filled. We deserve answers about every contract and every conversation that Collins and her team facilitated on the backs of taxpayers. The jig is up.”
Annie Clark, Collins’ deputy chief of staff, disputed the allegations made in the ProPublica story, and accused the publication of wrongly lending credibility to Kao, whom she said “began making outlandish charges about the Collins office, deflecting blame from himself” for his own criminal behavior.
“The seven-year-old allegations made against Sen. Collins and her staff in this piece are categorically false,” said Clark. “There have never been any allegations of wrongdoing by the Collins for Senator campaign, and the campaign was never the target of the FBI investigation.”
‘Incredible Story of Corruption’: Bombshell Report Puts Susan Collins at Center of Massive Bribery Scheme
ProPublica reported that the US senator from Maine, now running for a sixth term, was the “most important patron” of a defense company accused of bribing members of Congress for federal contracts.
US Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) arrives for a Senate hearing on June 17, 2026.
(Photo by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Sep 22, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Explosive reporting published Tuesday by the investigative outlet ProPublica details how US Sen. Susan Collins was at the center of a “sprawling pay-to-play operation” under which the chief executive of a Hawaii-based defense contractor allegedly funneled campaign cash to lawmakers in exchange for lucrative federal contracts.
ProPublica’s story—based on internal emails, thousands of pages of legal records, interviews, and other evidence—reveals for the first time the existence of an FBI investigation into possible bribery of members of Congress, including Collins, by the defense contractor Navatek, a probe that was shuttered after President Donald Trump took office for his second term.
In late 2019, according to ProPublica, the head of a pro-Collins super PAC, Scott Reed, met with then-Navatek CEO Martin Kao and other executives at a Washington, DC bakery and asked them for a $500,000 donation to the longtime Maine senator’s 2020 reelection bid.
“If they cut a big check, the CEO told Reed, Navatek wanted Collins to guarantee tens of millions of dollars in additional federal funding,” ProPublica reported. “After the Corner Bakery meeting, [Kao] sent an initial $150,000 to the Collins super PAC using the shell company. Two months later, he told Navatek executives that Collins committed to getting the company $32 million in naval contracts, according to an internal company email.”
In 2022, Kao pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions. The $150,000 check to the pro-Collins group, the 1820 PAC, was funneled through an entity titled “the Society of Young Women Scientist [sic] and Engineers.” The money flowed from Navatek’s account, violating the ban on federal government contractors making campaign donations.
ProPubulica revealed that Kao, facing years in federal prison, handed FBI agents “a 50-page document naming dozens of lobbyists, congressional staffers, and members of Congress who he said helped him trade cash for contracts.” Kao also told federal agents that Navatek’s federally funded research “was of no real value,” according to ProPublica.
“Of all the politicians Navatek courted under Kao’s leadership, Collins was its most important patron,” the investigative outlet reported. “The senator’s office steered government contracts worth millions toward the company while her campaign was pumping Kao and his network for donations, according to emails seen by ProPublica. Sometimes they cut checks within 24 hours of the annual defense spending bill, which funds military contracts, clearing a key Senate hurdle.”
Collins, who is currently running for a sixth Senate term, denied allegations of bribery through a spokesperson, who dismissed Kao’s claims as “outlandish” and said the Collins campaign “disgorged the illegal contributions that Martin Kao had made without our knowledge.”
But ProPublica’s reporting details, with documentary evidence, Collins’ yearslong relationship with Kao, who first met the Maine senator face-to-face in 2018.
“In that first meeting with Collins and her staff, Kao pitched an $8 million boat hull research project for Navatek and [the University of Maine]. Collins seemed supportive,” the outlet noted. Kao funneled donations to Collins’ campaign, and the senator later included funding for Navatek’s project in the annual US military budget.
“Emails showed her staff made it clear to the Navy that it should send the money to Navatek,” ProPublica reported.
The outlet also revealed the details of a 2019 meeting between Kao, Collins, and Amy Abbott, who was then serving as the campaign finance director for the senator’s 2020 reelection campaign. The meeting took place before an event at Navatek’s Maine headquarters, where Collins posed for pictures with Kao.
“Before the event, Kao said, Collins, Abbott, and another staffer met with him in private,” ProPublica reported. “One of the staffers told Kao the campaign expected more donations. It was in this meeting that Collins said, ‘You’ve seen me deliver,’ he told the FBI.”
ProPublica reported that the US senator from Maine, now running for a sixth term, was the “most important patron” of a defense company accused of bribing members of Congress for federal contracts.
US Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) arrives for a Senate hearing on June 17, 2026.
(Photo by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Sep 22, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Explosive reporting published Tuesday by the investigative outlet ProPublica details how US Sen. Susan Collins was at the center of a “sprawling pay-to-play operation” under which the chief executive of a Hawaii-based defense contractor allegedly funneled campaign cash to lawmakers in exchange for lucrative federal contracts.
ProPublica’s story—based on internal emails, thousands of pages of legal records, interviews, and other evidence—reveals for the first time the existence of an FBI investigation into possible bribery of members of Congress, including Collins, by the defense contractor Navatek, a probe that was shuttered after President Donald Trump took office for his second term.
In late 2019, according to ProPublica, the head of a pro-Collins super PAC, Scott Reed, met with then-Navatek CEO Martin Kao and other executives at a Washington, DC bakery and asked them for a $500,000 donation to the longtime Maine senator’s 2020 reelection bid.
“If they cut a big check, the CEO told Reed, Navatek wanted Collins to guarantee tens of millions of dollars in additional federal funding,” ProPublica reported. “After the Corner Bakery meeting, [Kao] sent an initial $150,000 to the Collins super PAC using the shell company. Two months later, he told Navatek executives that Collins committed to getting the company $32 million in naval contracts, according to an internal company email.”
In 2022, Kao pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions. The $150,000 check to the pro-Collins group, the 1820 PAC, was funneled through an entity titled “the Society of Young Women Scientist [sic] and Engineers.” The money flowed from Navatek’s account, violating the ban on federal government contractors making campaign donations.
ProPubulica revealed that Kao, facing years in federal prison, handed FBI agents “a 50-page document naming dozens of lobbyists, congressional staffers, and members of Congress who he said helped him trade cash for contracts.” Kao also told federal agents that Navatek’s federally funded research “was of no real value,” according to ProPublica.
“Of all the politicians Navatek courted under Kao’s leadership, Collins was its most important patron,” the investigative outlet reported. “The senator’s office steered government contracts worth millions toward the company while her campaign was pumping Kao and his network for donations, according to emails seen by ProPublica. Sometimes they cut checks within 24 hours of the annual defense spending bill, which funds military contracts, clearing a key Senate hurdle.”
Collins, who is currently running for a sixth Senate term, denied allegations of bribery through a spokesperson, who dismissed Kao’s claims as “outlandish” and said the Collins campaign “disgorged the illegal contributions that Martin Kao had made without our knowledge.”
But ProPublica’s reporting details, with documentary evidence, Collins’ yearslong relationship with Kao, who first met the Maine senator face-to-face in 2018.
“In that first meeting with Collins and her staff, Kao pitched an $8 million boat hull research project for Navatek and [the University of Maine]. Collins seemed supportive,” the outlet noted. Kao funneled donations to Collins’ campaign, and the senator later included funding for Navatek’s project in the annual US military budget.
“Emails showed her staff made it clear to the Navy that it should send the money to Navatek,” ProPublica reported.
The outlet also revealed the details of a 2019 meeting between Kao, Collins, and Amy Abbott, who was then serving as the campaign finance director for the senator’s 2020 reelection campaign. The meeting took place before an event at Navatek’s Maine headquarters, where Collins posed for pictures with Kao.
“Before the event, Kao said, Collins, Abbott, and another staffer met with him in private,” ProPublica reported. “One of the staffers told Kao the campaign expected more donations. It was in this meeting that Collins said, ‘You’ve seen me deliver,’ he told the FBI.”
Martin Kao, second from left, was pictured with Sen. Susan Collins during an event in August 2019. (Photo: Sen. Susan Collins/Facebook)
Avi Asher-Schapiro, one of four ProPublica reporters who bylined the bombshell story, lamented that “we may never know the full story” of the large-scale bribery scheme alleged by Kao because the Trump administration “took a wrecking ball to the FBI teams and DOJ lawyers specializing in these cases—everyone who worked it is gone.”
“And as far as we know,” Asher-Schapiro added, “the FBI abandoned a witness who might have been able to expose a generational corruption scandal.”
The report was published just weeks before the November midterms, when Collins will attempt to retain her seat against former Maine Senate candidate Troy Jackson, who has said that billionaires and corporate-funded super PACs “have her in their pockets.”
Avi Asher-Schapiro, one of four ProPublica reporters who bylined the bombshell story, lamented that “we may never know the full story” of the large-scale bribery scheme alleged by Kao because the Trump administration “took a wrecking ball to the FBI teams and DOJ lawyers specializing in these cases—everyone who worked it is gone.”
“And as far as we know,” Asher-Schapiro added, “the FBI abandoned a witness who might have been able to expose a generational corruption scandal.”
The report was published just weeks before the November midterms, when Collins will attempt to retain her seat against former Maine Senate candidate Troy Jackson, who has said that billionaires and corporate-funded super PACs “have her in their pockets.”
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