The FBI spent years quietly investigating whether Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) traded her influence on the Senate Appropriations Committee for campaign cash from a defense contractor, according to a bombshell ProPublica investigation published this week — an inquiry that collapsed after President Trump's return to office triggered a purge inside the bureau.

At the center of the allegations is Martin Kao, the former CEO of the Hawaii-based defense technology firm Navatek. Kao told federal agents his company won millions of dollars in federal contracts after he illegally funneled donations to a super PAC supporting Collins' tight 2020 re-election bid. In exchange, Kao claimed, Collins used her powerful appropriations post to steer tens of millions of dollars in Navy and defense work toward his company.

What the FBI found — and lost

The FBI opened a sweeping pay-to-play investigation in 2024, examining Collins' interactions with Kao and her campaign's finances going back to 2020, CNN reported. But the inquiry was shelved after Trump's inauguration and the subsequent shake-up of FBI leadership — before investigators could reach a public conclusion.

"ULTIMATELY FOUND NOTHING IMPLICATING SENATOR COLLINS OR SENATOR COLLINS' CAMPAIGN. ANY SUGGESTION OTHERWISE IS TOTALLY FALSE."

That's how an FBI spokesperson characterized the bureau's findings when asked by ProPublica. Collins' office has pushed back even harder, "vigorously" denying any wrongdoing and calling Kao's specific claims of a bribery arrangement "outlandish."

Kao himself is no stranger to controversy: he was previously convicted of pandemic-relief fraud unrelated to the Collins allegations, a fact Collins' allies have pointed to in dismissing his credibility as a witness.

The report has landed like a bomb in Maine's already-competitive Senate race. Democrats in the state have seized on the story, with local outlets like the Bangor Daily News reporting that the allegations are already reshaping campaign messaging ahead of next year's midterms, with Collins facing her toughest re-election test in years.

For now, no charges have been filed against Collins, and the FBI's own account says the investigation cleared her. But the revelation that a sitting senator's campaign finances were the subject of a formal federal bribery inquiry — one that closed without public findings — is likely to fuel scrutiny of both Collins and the Trump-era FBI's handling of the case in the weeks ahead. A detailed breakdown of the allegations and the investigation's timeline is available from the Portland Press Herald.