The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way
Records show agents prepared a bribery probe into Collins-linked donations and contracts before a Trump purge ended it.
- FBI agents sought to launch a sweeping bribery investigation into Senator Susan Collins in 2024 based on defense contractor Martin Kao's confession, but the probe halted after President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
- Facing years in prison, Kao began cooperating with FBI agents and prosecutors who prosecuted him, spending three days in Honolulu detailing how his operation worked and providing a 50-page document naming dozens of members of Congress involved in cash-for-contracts deals.
- In a 60-slide presentation, FBI agents highlighted donations Kao made to Collins in 2018 before she placed $8 million in research funding into the federal budget; Kao also sent around $33,000 through illegal straw donors in 2019.
- After Trump returned to the White House, he purged the Department of Justice and FBI; one agent who took Kao's confession was pushed out in October 2025 for investigating Trump's 2020 election efforts.
- The investigation sparked by Kao's revelations is dead, with dozens of agents and prosecutors quitting as the Public Integrity Section collapsed; Trump's Justice Department no longer pursues public corruption, according to former officials.
21 Articles
21 Articles
Susan Collins Was Target of FBI Bribery Probe
“The FBI was quietly investigating a bipartisan group of over a dozen lawmakers — including Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine — in connection with a sprawling pay-for-contracts bribery scheme. Then the Trump administration gutted the FBI’s public corruption unit,” Rolling Stone reports. “According to a Tuesday report from ProPublica, the probe stemmed from a […]
'Incredible Story of Corruption': Bombshell Report Puts Susan Collins at Center of Massive Bribery Scheme
ProPublica reported that the US senator from Maine, now running for a sixth term, was the "most important patron" of a defense company accused of bribing members of Congress for federal contracts.
FBI Examined Susan Collins' Donor Ties Before Broader Bribery Probe Suddenly Collapsed - American Liberty News
Agents examined contributions that arrived near key federal funding decisions, but no charges followed. FBI anti-corruption agents examined whether campaign contributions connected to a defense contractor were tied to millions of dollars in federal funding supported by Sen. Susan Collins, according to records and internal communications reviewed by ProPublica. The inquiry grew out of the […]
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