Abbott continued, “ProPublica bought it hook, line, and sinker.” But of course, we didn’t take Kao’s word, either. Over many months, we reviewed a trove of evidence gathered by the FBI and interviewed dozens of people connected to the story. Then we published the receipts.

Collins' campaign manager also repeated false claims yesterday, saying Kao “tried to sell this story to the FBI. They didn't buy it.” In reality, we report, agents sifted through 100,000s of documents to corroborate Kao and sought a full investigation based on what they found.

…Because Trump had them purged from the FBI for having worked on investigations he didn’t like. With no one left to carry out the investigation, it simply died.

Collins also repeated a false claim she made before: that the DOJ under Biden “thoroughly investigated” Kao’s claims and found them “utterly false.” In fact, the investigation at the center of our story ended in 2025, under Trump. And the agents didn’t reach any conclusions…

Collins has yet to explain a more significant meeting, in 2019. That meet was between Kao and a top Collins fundraiser, whom Kao said asked for a huge donation. He gave $150,000. Two months later, Kao emailed colleagues saying Collins promised $32M in new funding.

Collins meeting with Kao, in the photo, took place Feb. 15, 2018. Kao donated $4,000 to her campaign on June 27, 2018. It’s unclear what Kao agreed to—he declined an interview—but this would be a common sequence in politics: First the money is promised and later, it’s paid.

Here is what we reported. It accurately reflects what Kao told the FBI: that Collins wanted an agreement to donate before they met.

Kao told agents Collins wouldn’t meet unless he agreed to donate to her. Last night, Collins said, “We have a picture showing him meeting with me…that took place months before there was ever a contribution.” Her campaign released the pic. But that doesn’t contradict our story.

A recap: the FBI was probing a potential bribery scheme in Congress until Trump gutted the bureau. Martin Kao, an ex-govt contractor facing prison, told the FBI he traded campaign donations for military contracts. Agents corroborated parts of his story and launched an investigation.

Sen. Collins faced Troy Jackson last night in their Maine Senate debate. On stage, Collins inaccurately described ProPublica’s story about an FBI anticorruption investigation that probed the conduct of her & her staff until Trump’s DOJ shut it down. Let’s get into the facts…

Collins’ office “vigorously” denied Kao’s bribery allegations, calling them “outlandish” The anti-corruption agents on the case were pushed out in Trump’s purge of the FBI. An FBI spokesman defended their ouster and said the bureau “ultimately found nothing” implicating Collins.

ProPublica is revealing the existence of the case for the first time. These are the kinds of corruption claims Trump’s DOJ ignores. So we did our own investigation—knocking on doors as far away as Hawaii, looking at thousands of records that got the FBI to take Kao seriously

“You’ve seen me deliver.” That’s what Collins told Kao, he said, as her staff pressured him to up his donations. Kao wound up giving the Collins super PAC $150,000 in late 2019. Weeks later, according to an email, Collins’ office agreed to support $32m in new Navatek projects.

The contractor, Martin Kao, claimed he bribed Collins with campaign money for her help securing gov contracts for his boat-building company, Navatek. Kao routed $190k to Collins at a low point in her 2020 reelection effort. Collins steered almost $40 mil in contracts to Navatek.

Exclusive: In late 2024, FBI agents were looking at Sen. Susan Collins’ role in a massive illegal bribery scheme alleged by a former federal contractor. Then Trump gutted the FBI and DOJ, leaving no one to carry on the investigation – it’s dead. 🧵

After a decade+ of nonstop pollution offenses, GOP Sen. Jim Justice's coal empire learned earlier this year that it was under federal criminal investigation. But before prosecutors could gather crucial evidence, Todd Blanche's office told them "pencils down."