{
  "id": 9115718,
  "title": "The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/22/the-fbi-anti-corruption-squad-was-circling-susan-collins-until-trump",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-22T09:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "ProPublica",
    "slug": "propublica",
    "url": "https://www.propublica.org/article/fbi-susan-collins-navatek-campaign-donations-investigation"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the final weeks of 2019, a top fundraiser for Sen. Susan Collins, Scott Reed, met with executives from a Hawaiian defense contractor, Navatek, at a Corner Bakery in Washington, D.C. Collins, a Republican senator from Maine, was concerned about losing her seat, as President Donald Trump's low approval ratings negatively impacted her in the polls and her fundraising lagged behind her likely Democratic challenger.\n\nThe executives, aware that government contractors are banned from making political contributions, proposed a \"pay-to-play\" arrangement. Navatek would guarantee tens of millions of dollars in naval contracts for the company in exchange for Collins guaranteeing federal funding. The executives planned to funnel a $500,000 donation to Collins' super PAC through a shell company to conceal its source.\n\nAfter the meeting, Navatek CEO Martin Kao sent an initial $150,000 to the super PAC using the shell company. Two months later, he informed Navatek executives that Collins had committed to securing $32 million in naval contracts for the company. Kao later recounted this meeting to FBI agents and federal prosecutors in 2022, when Navatek's CEO was indicted for making illegal campaign contributions.\n\nFBI agents and federal prosecutors found out that Kao's allegations were part of a much larger \"pay-for-play\" operation involving numerous politicians, lobbyists, and congressional staffers. The operation allowed Navatek to secure government funding in multiple states through over $40 million in annual funding. Kao stated that Navatek's research under his guidance never resulted in products the military wanted to buy.\n\nFBI agents, having reviewed hundreds of thousands of records, found that Kao's account was consistent with the corruption scheme. With credibility issues due to his felony status, Kao's revelations opened up a new phase in the investigation, which could potentially ensnare top lawmakers from both political parties. In 2024, the FBI sought approval for a new bribery probe, but their efforts were hindered when Trump returned to the White House and began dismantling the Department of Justice's public corruption teams. Many agents and prosecutors quit in response to the department's purge, including the career attorney handling Kao's case. Trump's DOJ no longer takes on public corruption cases, resulting in the investigation sparked by Kao's revelations being discontinued. The FBI stated that no evidence implicates Collins or her campaign in any wrongdoing, and any claims to the contrary are false.",
  "summary": "The post The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way appeared first on ProPublica .",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}