ProPublica Report Says FBI Weighed 2024 Pay-to-Play Probe of Susan Collins, Senator Calls It 'Totally False'

Susan Collins is six weeks from Election Day and fighting a story that could define her sixth Senate campaign. ProPublica reported on September 23, 2026, that the FBI in 2024 planned to open an investigation into whether the Maine Republican knew about illegal campaign contributions tied to Navatek, a Hawaii defense contractor. That investigation, according to ProPublica, never got off the ground after Donald Trump won the presidency.

The facts that aren't in dispute: Martin Kao, Navatek's former CEO, funneled a $150,000 donation to a pro-Collins super PAC in 2019 through a shell company, a violation of federal campaign finance law. Kao and two other Navatek executives were indicted and convicted on charges tied to those illegal donations. ProPublica says it reviewed an internal Navatek email in which Kao told colleagues Collins had committed to getting the company $32 million in Navy contracts.

What's alleged, not proven: that this was a quid pro quo. Kao, trying to reduce his own sentence, told the FBI the fuller scope of illegal money flowing to Collins, according to ProPublica. Collins has never been charged with anything. An FBI spokesperson told the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times that the underlying allegations "had already been investigated by the FBI years ago and ultimately found nothing implicating Senator Collins or Senator Collins' campaign," calling any suggestion otherwise false.

Collins herself called the story "absolutely outrageous" and noted, accurately, that Kao is a twice-convicted felon on money laundering, bank fraud and FEC false-statement charges. "He's a liar whose story is untrustworthy," she said, according to the Associated Press. Her campaign manager, Steve Abbott, said flatly that the claim Collins "charged people to have meetings" is categorically false.

That's the strongest defense on the table: a convicted felon with an obvious incentive to cooperate with prosecutors made the allegation, and the FBI's own prior review reportedly found nothing on Collins. Whether the 2024 plan to reopen the probe reflected new evidence or was simply overtaken by the change in administration is a genuine open question ProPublica's sourcing doesn't resolve, and no new investigation has been announced as of this writing.

Democrats pile on, six weeks out

Maine Democrats didn't wait for further clarity. Party executive director Devon Murphy-Anderson held a news conference outside Collins' Portland office demanding answers, calling it a "betrayal of trust," according to the Bangor Daily News. Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson called the allegation "corruption of the highest order." Collins is defending her seat in a state Trump lost in 2024, and Democrats need the win to have any shot at the Senate majority. The timing of the attacks, six weeks before voters decide, is obviously strategic, but that doesn't make the underlying documented facts (Kao's convictions, the illegal donation, the internal email ProPublica says it reviewed) disappear.

The Daffron payment nobody will explain

Scott Reed, the operative who ran the 1820 PAC that took Kao's illegal money in 2019, now runs Pine Tree Results PAC, which has booked more than $28 million in ads backing Collins this cycle, according to AdImpact data cited by the Bangor Daily News. Reed's lobbying firm, Chesapeake Enterprises, paid Collins' husband, Tom Daffron, at least $1,000 as a consultant last year. Because Senate disclosure rules only require reporting that a payment exceeded $1,000, the actual amount is unknown.

The Bangor Daily News reported this consulting arrangement overlapped with Chesapeake's work for clients who had donated to Collins or had business before her committee. Collins has not said what work her husband did or how much he was paid. That remains an unanswered question, distinct from the Navatek allegations, and one Collins' campaign has simply declined to engage with rather than deny.

It wasn't just Collins taking Kao's money

The bipartisan wrinkle here, reported by WHYY News in Delaware, is that Kao and his wife, Tiffany Lam, also gave $18,700 over the 2014 and 2020 cycles to Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat on the Appropriations Committee since 2013. Unlike Collins, Coons' campaign quietly moved that money to four Delaware charities in October 2023 after a Honolulu news outlet detailed Kao's crimes, Coons told WHYY. Kao also donated to Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Tammy Baldwin, both on the Appropriations Committee, WHYY reported. Coons said he doesn't recall meeting Kao and wasn't tracking a Hawaii contractor's criminal case in real time, an explanation that, unlike Collins' situation, comes with a paper trail showing the money was returned before any national story broke.

The unresolved question going into November: whether Maine voters get any further answers on the Daffron payment or on why the 2024 FBI review reportedly stalled before they cast ballots in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country.