Sept. 23, 2026, 8:47 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON – Maine Sen. Susan Collins‘ Republican colleagues swiftly got here to her protection the day after the information outlet ProPublica printed an investigative story that laid out proof of alleged involvement in a pay-to-play scheme involving a protection contractor.
The story, which got here out on Tuesday, Sept. 22, stated that data and emails confirmed the FBI sought to launch a sweeping investigation analyzing Collins’ interactions with a high donor who received profitable federal contracts. By late 2024, the company reportedly had sufficient proof to pursue a sweeping bribery probe involving Collins and different members of Congress.
However that effort, based on the ProPublica story, evaporated after the Trump administration purged the Justice Division and FBI of its groups that deal with public corruption circumstances.
It is unclear whether or not the accusations specified by the article will resonate with Maine voters in November, when Collins is up for reelection in a toss-up race that can show essential to whichever occasion finally controls the Senate.
The story does, nonetheless, add to a maze of obstacles she’s dealing with to retain her coveted seat in Congress. Whereas she has a monitor report as a Teflon political candidate within the Pine Tree State, her marketing campaign is already being harm by an unpopular battle, President Trump’s commerce disputes with Canada and the sudden departure of her preliminary, scandal-plagued opponent.
Each Collins and her high spokespeople denied any impropriety following the publication of the ProPublica article, saying the Justice Division, courting again to the Biden administration, cleared the senator and her workers of any alleged wrongdoing.
Collins informed a Wall Avenue Journal opinion columnist she was the sufferer of a “partisan hit job” and questioned why anybody would “take the phrase of a convicted felon,” referring to the protection contractor on the middle of the scandal whose cooperation was relied on by investigators to construct their case.
“It’s so offensive,” she stated. “This can be a smear job.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, informed USA TODAY the accusations have been a “bunch of BS.” Requested why he thought so, he stated, “as a result of I do know Susan Collins.” Cornyn and Collins have served collectively within the Senate for greater than twenty years.
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, who sits on the highly effective Senate Appropriations Committee which Collins leads, argued her Maine colleague has the “utmost moral requirements.”
“I’ve zero concern for any type of baseless accusations,” she informed USA TODAY.
Maybe Collins’ quickest – and most politically essential – defender was Senate Majority Chief John Thune.
“I do not suppose there’s ever been any implication that she or her marketing campaign have been in any means implicated in that,” the South Dakota Republican informed reporters. “This, to me, appears to be like like a political hit job by a left-wing outlet that is attempting to attain factors going into an election.”
A lot of Collins’ reelection marketing campaign was initially constructed round combating Graham Platner, the oyster farmer who ultimately dropped out amid a sequence of sexual misconduct allegations, which he denied. Troy Jackson, a logger and former president of the Maine state Senate, changed Platner because the Democratic candidate whose identify might be on the autumn poll.
Within the day for the reason that ProPublica story printed, Jackson slammed his opponent over what he referred to as “corruption of the best order.”
“We are able to’t afford six extra years of being offered out to Trump and Collins’ company cronies,” he wrote in a social media submit.
Zachary Schermele is the congressional correspondent for USA TODAY. Attain him by e-mail at zschermele@usatoday.com and on Sign @zachschermele.02. Comply with him on X at @ZachSchermele.
