F.B.I. agents had assembled enough evidence by late 2024 to seek a broad political bribery investigation touching Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and other members of Congress, according to an investigation published Tuesday by ProPublica. The inquiry died after President Trump returned to office and dismantled the bureau unit handling it.
The case grew out of the prosecution of Martin Kao, the former chief executive of the Hawaiian defense contractor Navatek. Kao pleaded guilty in 2022 to campaign finance crimes and to defrauding the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program, and is serving an 87-month sentence. No one working for Collins was charged.
Cooperating with investigators in hopes of a shorter sentence, Kao spent at least three multi-day sessions with F.B.I. agents and federal prosecutors in Honolulu. ProPublica reported that he handed over a 50-page document naming lobbyists, congressional staffers and more than a dozen members of Congress he said had helped him trade campaign cash for federal contracts. He and associates donated close to $900,000 to politicians, the outlet reported, while Navatek drew more than $40 million a year in government funding.
Collins was the company's most valuable ally, according to ProPublica's review of internal emails and F.B.I. records. In late 2019, the chairman of a Collins-aligned super PAC met Navatek executives at a Washington coffee shop and solicited a large donation. Kao subsequently routed $150,000 to the PAC through a newly formed limited liability company, concealing that the money came from Navatek, which as a federal contractor is barred from donating. Two months later, Kao told colleagues Collins had committed to $32 million in naval contracts.
Kao also told agents Navatek's research produced nothing the military wanted to buy.
Collins's office disputed the account. Annie Clark, her deputy chief of staff, told ProPublica the office vigorously denies the bribery and pay-for-play allegations and called Kao's claims outlandish. She said the campaign was not part of the super PAC discussions, cooperated fully with the F.B.I., and returned the illegal contributions in 2021.
An F.B.I. spokesman, Ben Williamson, said the bureau examined the claims years ago and found nothing implicating Collins or her campaign, calling any suggestion otherwise false. He did not address the 2024 inquiry, ProPublica reported.
Two agents in the bureau's public corruption unit, known as CR-15, pushed to open the broader case. One was fired in October 2025 over her work on the special counsel investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election and is suing; the other was forced out in early 2026. The Justice Department's Public Integrity Section collapsed in February 2025 after prosecutors were ordered to drop charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York.
Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, faces reelection this year in a race that could decide Senate control.
