Reporting Highlights
- Probe: In 2024, the FBI sought to launch a sweeping pay-to-play investigation examining interactions between Sen. Susan Collins and a top donor, records and emails show.
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records → seek → Collins
- Confession: The donor, an ex-defense contractor, told agents his company won millions in federal contracts by bankrolling campaigns of powerful politicians.
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company → tell → politicians
- Shutdown: After Donald Trump returned to office, the investigation died, a casualty of his purge of the FBI.
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investigation → return → FBI
Its closure shut a potential window into how Washington works.
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Washington → shut → window
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
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who → write → story
In the final weeks of 2019, a top fundraiser for Sen. Susan Collins walked into a perilous meeting at a Corner Bakery in Washington, D.C.
For the first time in her two-decade Senate career, the Republican lawmaker from Maine was in danger of losing her seat.
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lawmaker → walk → seat
President Donald Trump’s dismal approval ratings were dragging her down in the polls, and she was falling behind her likely 2020 Democratic challenger in fundraising.
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she → drag → fundraising
Scott Reed, head of the Collins super PAC, was on a mission to close that gap.
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Reed → close → gap
Reed was meeting that day with three executives from a Hawaiian defense contractor, Navatek.
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Reed → meet → contractor
A year earlier, Collins had helped their company land a multimillion-dollar Navy research contract in Maine.
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company → help → Maine
Now, seated at a coffee shop not far from the U.S. Capitol, Reed asked them for a $500,000 donation.
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Reed → seat → donation
Government contractors are banned from making political contributions.
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contractors → ban → contributions
More consequentially, for the company to offer donations to Collins in exchange for an official action, or for Collins to accept, would constitute criminal bribery.
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Collins → offer → bribery
But the company did have such a proposal: Navatek was hungry for more government contracts in Maine.
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Navatek → have → Maine
If they cut a big check, the CEO told Reed, Navatek wanted Collins to guarantee tens of millions of dollars in additional federal funding.
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Collins → cut → funding
To skirt campaign finance laws and conceal the source of the funds, Navatek planned to funnel the donation through a shell company.
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Navatek → skirt → company
The CEO wanted assurance that Collins would know where the money came from.
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money → want → where
Reed confirmed that she would, the executive said — and that Navatek would get its government contracts.
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Navatek → confirm → contracts
After the Corner Bakery meeting, Navatek’s CEO, Martin Kao, sent an initial $150,000 to the Collins super PAC using the shell company.
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CEO → send → company
Two months later, he told Navatek executives that Collins committed to getting the company $32 million in naval contracts, according to an internal company email reviewed by ProPublica.
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Collins → tell → ProPublica
Three years later, Kao holed up in a conference room to recount the Corner Bakery meeting to a group of four FBI agents and federal prosecutors.
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Kao → hole → agents
The FBI had seen through his shell company ruse, and in 2022 a grand jury indicted him for making illegal campaign contributions.
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jury → see → contributions
No one working for Collins was charged.
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one → work → Collins
Facing years in prison, Kao hoped to do less time by revealing the entire scheme.
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Kao → face → scheme
What he told them has never before become public.
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told → tell → them
The Corner Bakery meeting, he asserted, was just one episode in a sprawling pay-to-play operation that embroiled some of the most powerful figures in Congress.
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that → assert → Congress
Over three days at the U.S. attorney’s office in Honolulu, Kao laid out in devastating detail how his operation worked.
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operation → lay → detail
He gave agents a 50-page document naming dozens of lobbyists, congressional staffers and members of Congress who he said helped him trade cash for contracts.
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he → give → contracts
Kao and his close associates had donated nearly $900,000 to dozens of politicians, allowing Navatek to establish operations in half a dozen states with over $40 million a year in government funding.
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Navatek → donate → funding
Do You Have Information About Political Dealmaking in Washington?
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You → have → Washington
We’re still reporting on pay-for-play arrangements between powerful companies and elected officials.
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We → report → companies
I want to hear from you.
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I → want → you
The best way to reach me is on Signal at 804-295-7201.
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way → reach → 7201
Most damningly, Kao told FBI agents and prosecutors, the company’s work for the government was of no real value.
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work → tell → value
Navatek’s research under his stewardship never resulted in products the military wanted to buy, ProPublica found.
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ProPublica → result → products
Kao’s tell-all interviews with the FBI lasted into late 2024.
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interviews → tell → 2024
His confessions opened up an entirely new phase of the investigation.
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confessions → open → investigation
Agents sifted through hundreds of thousands of records seized during Kao’s arrest and found that many were consistent with his account of widespread influence peddling.
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many → sift → peddling
Kao had credibility issues.
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Kao → have → issues
He was now a felon trying to avoid a lengthy prison sentence.
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He → try → sentence
…and 286 more, not listed.
The Aporia
