ProPublica reported that FBI anti-corruption investigators examined allegations that Hawaii-based defense contractor Navatek and CEO Martin Kao steered roughly $200,000 toward Sen. Susan Collins’s political orbit—including contributions allegedly routed through family straw donors and a shell company, with about $150,000 tied to the allied 1820 PAC—while Collins’s office supported millions in Navy contract interest for the firm.

Collins and her campaign deny wrongdoing and say they were not charged; reporting indicates the broader inquiry lost momentum after Trump returned to office. Maine Public and USA TODAY amplified the September 22 disclosures as Collins faces a razor-tight 2026 reelection fight against Democrat Troy Jackson, with recent polls showing a toss-up and national Democrats treating Maine as a flip target on a map that also features Georgia, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

The story lands as Trump’s national approval sits in the mid-to-high 30s in several midterm surveys and Democrats lead the generic congressional ballot by double digits in some polling, per PBS and other aggregations—pressure that makes every contested Republican-held seat more expensive. Jackson allies cast the ProPublica account as evidence of corruption; Collins allies call it a recycled, unresolved allegation timed to damage a vulnerable incumbent.

Accounts agree the FBI looked at Navatek-linked donations and that no Collins campaign conviction resulted from the cited probes; they diverge on whether the abandoned investigation reflects weak evidence, political interference, or both—and on how much weight Maine voters will give a complex campaign-finance narrative weeks from Election Day. The midterm calendar leaves little time for a full legal reckoning, so the political fight will likely outrun any remaining investigative threads.