NPR’s Juana Summers talks with Avi Asher-Schapiro of ProPublica about the connections between a defense contractor and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, and how the FBI was, at one time, looking into it.
Transcript
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Our next story is one of intrigue, secret meetings, bribery, a shell company and a swaggering CEO driving a Ferrari. But this is also a serious story, allegations of government corruption at the highest levels with taxpayers left holding the bag. Specifically, ProPublica alleges the FBI was looking into the team of Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine for trading big checks from a defense contractor for big government contracts buried in appropriations bills. And much of this story, it comes straight from FBI documents. Reporter Avi Asher-Schapiro is one of the reporters behind the investigation. Hey there.
AVI ASHER-SCHAPIRO: Hi. Thanks for having me.
SUMMERS: Thanks for being here. OK. Avi, your story starts with a 2019 meeting between a top fundraiser for Maine Senator Susan Collins and several executives at Navatek, which is a Hawaiian defense contractor. Take us into that meeting. What happened?
ASHER-SCHAPIRO: Yeah, so the context here is really important. At this point, Senator Collins was, you know, in a tough reelection battle. Her approval rating was falling, and she needed money. So, you know, her super PAC was going around looking for big checks, and they took a meeting with a company called Navatek, who was expanding rapidly in Maine. And they wanted something from the senator, which was federal contracts. And according to the former CEO of the company, they struck a deal in that meeting with the head of Susan Collins’ super PAC, a six-figure donation for expanded contracts in Maine.
SUMMERS: The CEO at the time, Martin Kao, ends up getting indicted a few years later. He confesses all of this to the FBI. What else do federal agents learn about the extent of Navatek’s relationship to Senator Collins?
ASHER-SCHAPIRO: Yeah, the important thing to understand about this is Martin Kao, the CEO of Navatek, made illegal campaign contributions, both to Senator Collins’ campaign and also to her super PAC. And he got caught. And he was arrested, and he pled guilty. And then he started talking to the FBI, and he said, it takes two to tango. He said, you know, this was a deal that was struck. This wasn’t just me making illegal donations. This was a larger scheme.
And the FBI looked into it. And they compiled emails, company records, documents from the Navy, contracting documents and were able to piece together that a lot of what Martin Kao was saying, or at least some of it, checked out. And so what we did in our story was look at the allegations that Kao made, looked at the documentary record and try to piece together what can be said about this.
SUMMERS: At the end of 2024, FBI agents begin pursuing this sort of sweeping bribery probe that could implicate top lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, including Susan Collins; doesn’t get very far, though before President Trump wins back the White House. What happens to the investigation?
ASHER-SCHAPIRO: Right. So FBI agents had this sort of incredible opportunity. They had this former CEO of a defense contractor who had been in the room with all of these lawmakers, who had made these big donations, who had won all these contracts and said, I’m ready to cooperate and show you how it’s all done. And he’s talking to the FBI, and he’s handing over evidence and a big 50-page confession right towards the end of 2024, and the FBI is taking him seriously. But these are complicated investigations, early stages.
And then Trump sweeps back into office and basically takes a wrecking ball to the specialized teams at the DOJ, both at the FBI and DOJ public corruption prosecutors. And the very agents who were debriefing Kao, as well as the prosecutor assigned to the case, were either fired or quit in disgust over what was happening. So, you know, the case sort of languished. There’s no one debriefing Kao anymore as far as we know, and it seems to be dead in the water.
SUMMERS: Now, I know that you reached out to Maine Senator Susan Collins’ office for comment. What did you hear?
ASHER-SCHAPIRO: So, you know, the Senator has denied the allegations that Kao has made and has downplayed the scope of the FBI probe. But I think it’s important to say, while the senator has said publicly that this thing was basically tied up years ago, that’s just not true. FBI agents were asking questions of Martin Kao about Susan Collins, about her office and about her super PAC as recently as the end of 2024.
And, you know, while Susan Collins has said that she’s been vindicated and that the FBI cleared her campaign, that’s also not true. As I said, all of the agents and prosecutors who worked on this case were forced out by the Trump administration or quit. And now political appointees at the FBI told us that Susan Collins and her staff have been cleared. But the fact is the people who are working in this case are all gone.
SUMMERS: I mean, as a former congressional reporter, I have to tell you, I find this all so fascinating. Avi, what did this reporting reveal to you about just how easy it is to buy influence in Washington, D.C., these days?
ASHER-SCHAPIRO: Yeah, I mean, I think that’s a really important point, right? We went out to Hawaii. My colleague William Turton flew out to Hawaii and talked to former executives at this company. This is not all coming from Martin Kao. And one of them told him, you know, we were shocked about how far money went in D.C., how easy it was to get into these rooms. He told us, you know, I met Susan Collins. So, you know, we made donations, and we were able to get these meetings. So I think, you know, money opens doors here, and I think this story gives a rare backroom take on all of the sort of mechanisms and hydraulics of how money buys influence here in D.C. And, you know, we’re hoping that people read it. And if anyone knows anything about how this worked or has any information, they should contact us because we’re still working on this story, and there’s more to come.
SUMMERS: Republican reporter Avi Asher-Schapiro, thanks so much.
ASHER-SCHAPIRO: Thank you so much.
SUMMERS: NPR also reached out to Senator Collins’ office. They referred us to Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Clark’s statement on X, which reads in part, the seven-year-old allegations made against Senator Collins and her staff in this piece are categorically false. There have never been any allegations of wrongdoing by the Collins for Senator campaign, and the campaign was never the target of the FBI investigation.
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