Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) denied through a spokesperson on Tuesday a damning ProPublica report that her office steered federal contracts to a campaign donor’s company.
“ProPublica took the word of someone who pled guilty to five counts of money laundering, three counts of wire fraud, one count of bank fraud, and making false submissions to the FEC,” Collins’ deputy chief of staff said on social media.
ProPublica reported the head of a super PAC aligned with Collins solicited a campaign contribution in 2019 from a lobbyist working for a Hawaii-based defense contractor, who asked for Collins to steer federal contracts to the firm in return.
Martin Kao’s company, Navatek, got the contract, but a federal investigation into his kickback scheme stalled after President Donald Trump took office and essentially put a stop to all public corruption investigations.
Kao was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2025 on unrelated fraud charges for bilking a coronavirus relief program. ProPublica reported he sought to reduce his sentence by providing information on Collins and dozens of other lawmakers, lobbyists and staffers in his cash-for-contracts scheme.
Though Collins’ spokesperson said ProPublica relied on Kao’s “word,” the outlet said it reviewed emails corroborating the allegation — including one message in which the Collins’ super PAC rep asked the lobbyist for Kao’s number: “Senator Collins would like to call Martin to thank him.”
Collins’ spokesperson insisted the Joe Biden administration thoroughly investigated the Navatek case and found it wanting evidence.
“The Collins campaign cooperated fully with the FBI throughout the investigation, producing all of the documents it requested and serving as fact witnesses in official settings,” the spokesperson said, noting that the FBI told ProPublica its allegations of wrongdoing by Collins were false.