Senator Susan Collins FBI Looked Into Bribery Claims ... Before Trump Purged Agency

Published September 22, 2026 10:27 AM PDT

Senator Susan Collins was the target of a bribery investigation before President Donald Trump basically derailed the probe, according to a new report ... but her team is calling BS.

ProPublica dove into the alleged sordid affair in a new exposé published Tuesday ... claiming the Maine senator's campaign was strapped for cash in 2020 when she entered into an illicit understanding with the defense contractor Navatek through intermediaries.

The report alleges Navatek's CEO Martin Kao told top Collins fundraiser Scott Reed he'd make sure the campaign received thousands of dollars from a shell company -- in exchange for the senator guaranteeing "tens of millions of dollars in additional federal funding."

ProPublica bases its reporting -- at least partially -- on claims made by Kao ... who, it's worth noting, was sentenced to 33 months behind bars for making illegal campaign contributions to Collins. This sentence is running concurrently to the 87 months he was already serving for COVID-relief wire fraud, money laundering, and bank fraud.

The FBI was reportedly looking into the claims when President Trump was inaugurated a second time in early 2025 ... at which time, he reshaped the department -- ridding it of many members who had looked into his own alleged misconduct in the past. Some of those people were working on the Collins case.

Senator Collins' campaign has vehemently denied the allegations of wrongdoing against her ... saying in a statement to TMZ that the accusations against her and her staffers are "categorically false."

Her Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Clark tells TMZ ... "As Martin Kao was awaiting sentencing, he began making outlandish charges about the Collins office, deflecting blame from himself and placing it on Senator Collins, including alleging that our office required contributions before taking meetings and engaged in extortion, pay for play, and bribery."

She adds, "It is important to note that during the Biden Administration the FBI and the Department of Justice thoroughly investigated the Navatek matter. 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 ... These issues were resolved in 2021, and the FBI has not contacted us about Martin Kao since then."

FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson tells TMZ ... the probe "ultimately found nothing implicating Senator Collins or Senator Collins' campaign. Any suggestion otherwise is totally false."