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I believe the accusations of public corruption by Susan Collins and her campaign’s inner circle made by the felon Martin Kao, the former CEO of Navatek, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, do not disparage Collins’ reputation.
Still, the assertions made by one of her inner circle that her campaign was never a target of the investigation by the FBI under Joe Biden, that they “thoroughly examined the matter” and that the issues were resolved in 2021 when the campaign disgorged Kao’s illegal contributions, allegedly made without the campaign’s knowledge, do not seem fully based on fact.
The FBI’s records, including emails, recovered from Navatek show: That the FBI zeroed in on Kao’s connection with Collins; that Collins was Kao’s most important patron; and that her inner circle knew Kao was behind a suspicious $150,000 donation. ProPublica’s own investigation appears to corroborate much of Kao’s account to the FBI, and that the FBI’s CR-15, the anti-corruption unit specializing in misconduct by elected officials uncovered enough evidence by the end of 2024 to pursue a new investigation. Building a public corruption case requires extraordinary proof.
The investigation ended abruptly in 2025 as President Donald Trump fired the principal investigators causing dozens of others to quit the agency. Trump’s FBI no longer does meaningful public corruption work.
The foregoing does not suggest to me that Collins or her inner circle have been exonerated, albeit, the proof may yet come to that.
I think the Collins campaign may want to back off their claims that Troy Jackson is corrupt. In 2023 the Maine Ethics Commission reviewed and unanimously declined to investigate the mortgage fraud case made against him by Republicans.
Arthur Keenan
Bangor