Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) was visibly frustrated on a Wall Street Journal podcast interview released on Wednesday, where she was confronted with a bombshell ProPublica story alleging the FBI was looking into corruption in her office as recently as two years ago.
The case centers on Martin Kao, the leader of a Hawaiian defense contractor that allegedly sold junk services to the U.S. government with the backing of members of Congress who received campaign contributions from him. Kao, who was sentenced for fraud last year, alleged to federal investigators that Collins, through her super PAC, was a knowing and willing participant in the scheme, which her campaign denies.
Asked about the story by Kimberley Strassel, Collins said the whole thing was fabricated to damage her in the November election.
“It’s clearly a partisan hit job,” said Collins. “I do not understand how anyone would take the word of a felon who’s been convicted twice, twice, two separate cases, of five counts of money laundering, counts of bank fraud, false submissions to the FEC. He is a convicted liar. And when you contrast that to my decades of honest public service with the utmost integrity, it is so offensive.”
“The Biden-led Justice Department and FBI totally cleared my office, my campaign, and me five years ago of these seven-year-old allegations, and the FBI said again today that these are completely false, and it is so offensive,” she continued. “But clearly the timing is not coincidental. This is a smear job. And as someone who has always prided herself on serving with integrity, it really offends me.”
Contrary to Collins’ claims, ProPublica asserts that the Justice Department did not, in fact, clear Collins and her office of wrongdoing years prior, but was investigating the allegations as recently as 2024, and the Trump administration dismantled the FBI unit looking into the matter.
The post Susan Collins flips out when confronted with bribery allegations: ‘He’s a convicted liar!’ appeared first on Raw Story.
