The Republican, who is up for re-election, refutes claims the convicted ex-CEO of defense contractor Navatek made
Susan Collins, the US senator of Maine, has dismissed allegations that she traded federal contracts for campaign cash as “completely false” after it emerged the FBI examined the claims.
Asked by a reporter about an ethics complaint filed last week by a Maine attorney, the Republican – currently campaigning to retain her seat ahead of November’s US midterm elections – said the allegations were recycled from 2020 and had been rejected by the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Federal Election Commission.
“The allegations are completely false,” Collins said. She said the University of Maine, not the defense contractor Navatek, had asked her to back a research grant, and that she had never heard of the company. Its former chief executive, Martin Kao, she said, was “a crook” whom neither she, nor the university, knew about.
“We have a picture of his meeting with me and with other people in my office that is many months before he ever made a single contribution,” she added. “He spun this story up again in the hopes that the judge would be lenient, or the prosecutor would be.”
ProPublica reported in September that Kao, Navatek’s former president and CEO, told FBI agents and prosecutors that his company won millions in federal funding by bankrolling politicians, with Collins his most important patron. Kao, who is serving 87 months for fraud and campaign finance...
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