Report Details Scrapped FBI Bribery Probe Linked to Susan Collins

Eric Lee/Reuters The FBI was preparing a major bribery investigation that could have implicated Republican Maine Sen.

Susan Collins, but it was scrapped soon after Donald Trump returned to the White House, according to a report.

A damning ProPublica investigation details allegations that Collins and her team were involved in a pay-to-play scheme involving defense contractor Navatek.

The report claims that Scott Reed, head of the Collins super PAC, sought $500,000 from Navatek in 2019 to boost Collins’ re-election bid, after the senator helped the company win a multimillion-dollar Navy research contract in Maine.

In return, Navatek is reported to have said it wanted an assurance that Collins would help generate tens of millions of dollars more in federal funding for the company.

After the meeting, Navatek CEO Martin Kao set up a shell company to skirt campaign finance laws that ban government contractors from making political contributions and sent $150,000 to the Collins super PAC.

Two months later, Kao informed Navatek executives that Collins had put plans in place to award the company $32 million in naval contracts.

As noted by ProPublica, a company with federal contracts offering political donations to Collins in exchange for a favor “would constitute criminal bribery.” Collins has denied any wrongdoing.

The allegations arrive at a crucial time for Collins.

Her Maine Senate seat is one that Democrats believe they could flip in the Nov.

3 midterms, as the 73-year-old moderate Republican seeks a sixth six-year term in the blue state.

In 2022, a grand jury indicted Kao on suspicion of making illegal campaign contributions.

While being questioned by FBI agents and federal prosecutors, Kao said that the meeting with Collins was just one of a number of alleged pay-to-play operations involving members of Congress he was involved in.

In total, Kao and his team had donated nearly $900,000 to dozens of lawmakers, allowing the Hawaii-based Navatek to establish operations in half a dozen states with more than $40 million a year in government funding, ProPublica reported.