Augusta, ME – Today, a report from Maine Newsroom reveals more than $100,000 in new contributions that one of Elon Musk’s PACs put behind Susan Collins’ re-election. According to the report, three days before Collins “told reporters she didn’t know Elon Musk was spending money to help her,” “her own fundraising committee took $55,000 from SpaceX’s PAC.”

In response to these revelations, Misha Linnehan, spokesperson for the Maine Democratic Party, released the following statement:

“After Collins voted to advance Trump’s massive tax cut for billionaires, the world’s richest man is flooding Maine with cash on her behalf. Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their other billionaire friends are supporting Susan Collins’ campaign because they know she’s on their side.”

Read more here:

Maine Newsroom: Susan Collins took $105k in contributions from Elon Musk company’s PAC

• Back in August, Senator Susan Collins told reporters she didn’t know Elon Musk was spending money to help her. We now know that three days earlier, her own fundraising committee took $55,000 from SpaceX’s PAC.

• New campaign finance reports filed last week show that on August 31st, the PAC for SpaceX — the company Musk founded and runs — gave $55,000 to the Collins Victory Committee. That’s a joint fundraising committee that raises money for her campaign in partnership with the super PAC run by her close family friend.

• The same day, SpaceX’s PAC gave another $50,000 to that super PAC, Pine Tree Results PAC.

• The super PAC and her fundraising committee have the same treasurer.

• Just a few weeks before, Musk’s political PAC — that’s different than his SpaceX PAC — had publicly announced that they planned to pour more than $100 million of Musk’s money into electing Congressional Republicans, and that Collins would be one of their priorities.

• So then on September 3rd, a reporter asked Senator Collins about Musk spending to support her.

• “Well, first of all, I wasn’t aware of that donation. I knew he was going to get involved in political campaigns, but I had not heard that there was a specific donation. It must be through some group that maybe the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.”

• Well not only was Musk’s America PAC indeed about to spend big in Maine, Musk’s company’s PAC had already made big donations to her re-election efforts.