Augusta, ME – Today, a day after Susan Collins’ team made new claims about ProPublica’s bombshell report that Collins was being circled by the FBI for her involvement in a pay-to-play scheme before Trump gutted the team that would have investigated her, ProPublica’s reporters once again fact checked Collins team. According to ProPublica, “Collins’ campaign manager also repeated false claims,” and Collins herself “inaccurately described ProPublica’s story” on the debate stage. This is the second time that ProPublica has fact checked claims by Collins’ team about the story.

Read the full thread here:

Propublica’s Molly Redden, @mtredden on X

• Sen. Collins faced Troy Jackson last night in their Maine Senate debate.

• On stage, Collins inaccurately described ProPublica’s story about an FBI anticorruption investigation that probed the conduct of her & her staff until Trump’s DOJ shut it down. Let’s get into the facts…

• A recap: the FBI was probing a potential bribery scheme in Congress until Trump gutted the bureau.

• Martin Kao, an ex-govt contractor facing prison, told the FBI he traded campaign donations for military contracts. Agents corroborated parts of his story, launched an investigation

• Kao told agents Collins wouldn’t meet unless he agreed to donate to her.

• Last night, Collins said, “We have a picture showing him meeting with me…that took place months before there was ever a contribution.”

• Her campaign released the pic. But that doesn’t contradict our story.

• Here is what we reported. It accurately reflects what Kao told the FBI: that Collins wanted an agreement to donate before they met.

  • The first time Kao came face-to-face with Collins, in 2018, he told the FBI, he had to pay for the privilege.

• Collins would not meet unless he agreed to donate to her campaign, he said. While it is not illegal for politicians to exchange face time for contributions — in this case, just a few thousand dollars — it was not the last time Collins would seek Kao’s support.
  

• Collins meeting with Kao, in the photo, took place Feb. 15, 2018. Kao donated $4,000 to her campaign on June 27, 2018.

• It’s unclear what Kao agreed to—he declined an interview—but this would be a common sequence in politics: First the money is promised and later, it’s paid.
  

• Collins has yet to explain a more significant meeting, in 2019.

• That meet was between Kao and a top Collins fundraiser, whom Kao said asked for a huge donation. He gave $150,000. Two months later, Kao emailed colleagues saying Collins promised $32M in new funding.
  

• Collins also repeated a false claim she made before: that the DOJ under Biden “thoroughly investigated” Kao’s claims and found them “utterly false.”

• In fact, the investigation at the center of our story ended in 2025, under Trump. And the agents didn’t reach any conclusions…
  

• …Because Trump had them purged from the FBI for having worked on investigations he didn’t like. With no one left to carry out the investigation, it simply died.

• Collins’ campaign manager also repeated false claims yesterday, saying Kao “tried to sell this story to the FBI. They didn’t buy it.”

• In reality, we report, agents sifted through 100,000s of documents to corroborate Kao and sought a full investigation based on what they found.
  

• Abbott continued, “ProPublica bought it hook, line, and sinker.”

• But of course, we didn’t take Kao’s word, either. Over many months, we reviewed a trove of evidence gathered by the FBI and interviewed dozens of people connected to the story. Then we published the receipts.