‘Corruption of the Highest Order,’ Says Troy Jackson After Explosive Susan Collins Report | “We deserve answers about every contract and every conversation that Collins and her team facilitated on the backs of taxpayers. The jig is up.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/troy-jackson-collins-corruption
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Susan Collins: “I’m very concerned about this. No, for real this time.”
Eventually, the charade will end.
This is explosive and nobody is talking about it enough. ProPublica found the FBI was investigating Susan Collins in 2024 for pay-to-play.
I really love the timing of this report.
Yessss! Drag that trembling crone, Troy!
Ram this report down her throat every single day
Lock her up
I realllly hope she learns her lesson from behind bars.
Troy Jackson: “Call an October Surprise… But not for me!”
Jackson and the media should pound Collins with this everyday. And Patel for burning down the investigation.
We want to know WHO ELSE Navatech paid off!! I’m looking at Jared Golden with HARD side eye. Is that why he didn’t run again? Is this why he is voting with FASCISTS???
But Troy threw a water bottle! He’s unhinged!
Is this “draining the swamp”?
This is a very big deal.
Jon Ossof did a searing breakdown of it
Never in US history have politicians been more corrupt and compromised than now. Never. This is appalling.
The problem is, and what they count on is that there so many Jigs that are up that we will not follow through on most of them.
We deserve to witness all of them being marched out of their homes in handcuffs and shackles.
We deserve a reset of our government.
We deserve to see SCOTUS marched out in handcuffs.
We deserve to be able to watch them be punished in the town square. 😉
Release the full list of Congress people who took the bribes
“But she’s from MAINE!” – at least one third of Maine voters.
A little early for an October surprise, but fuck Susan Collins. Maybe she’ll finally lose re-election.
Why has this not been on major news outlets?
*The jig was, in fact, “not” up.*
When is the indictment coming?
Maine is a critical state and we have to hope this spreads across the state/opens people’s eyes. That state has been absolutely hurting and this corrupt muppet needs to be kicked to the curb.
Seems like all of those contracts should be audited for crimes and theft
It doesn’t seem like republicans care about greed and corruption! They’ll still vote for her!
From Maine newsroom substack (which mentions Tom Reed, the PAC man who brokered said deal):
Hey Mainers, it looks like Senator Susan Collins’s husband was paid by a lobbying firm just last year — and that firm has clients that lobbying before the Senate Appropriations Committee she chairs.
And that firm is led by the same person running the primary super PACs supporting Senator Collins’s re-election.
Now this is a complicated story but there are several discreet bits of news you should know.
The liberal outlet Meidas Touch reported the story on Tuesday and it infers some connections I don’t think are fair, but the core facts of it come from financial disclosures and it’s those facts I’m going to focus on here.
*The first thing that’s new is that while for years Senator Collins has said that her husband, Thomas Daffron was no longer a lobbyist, that he was retired, her newly filed financial disclosure form reveals that he was paid a consulting fee by his former lobbying firm as recently as last year.*
*Does that mean Daffron himself did the actual lobbying of Congress? No, it doesn’t. The form doesn’t say what he was doing, and there are a lot of ways to help a lobbying client without being the one to explicitly make the ask of Congress.*
*The disclosure form DOES says the consulting fee was more than $1,000. It could be $1,001… it could be a million… we have no way of knowing unless Senator Collins reveals it.*
*Chesapeake Enterprises represents several clients with issues before the Senate — one that’s focused on NIH funding, another that no one knows anything about but cares about “healthcare issues,” one that builds data centers.*
*The founder and sole employee of Chesapeake Enterprises is Scott Reed, who also runs the Pine Tree Results super PAC — the primary super PAC supporting Senator Collins’s re-election. It’s currently got $15 million in TV ad reservations in place.*
[**https://mainenewsroom.substack.com/p/disclosure-reveals-senator-collinss**](https://mainenewsroom.substack.com/p/disclosure-reveals-senator-collinss)
Love ProPublica and they’re doing a fundraising drive right now. So if you can, send some money their way. No one owns them so they can do these stories.
Great! Now do the rest of them.
Man we’re getting the good October surprise shit and it’s still September.
Like Susan and the GOP care. We’ll see if the people of Maine will do anything about it.
She’s very concerned.
She needs to be in prison. The flagrant corruption in our politics needs to be severely punished.
Of course, not a word over on the conservative sub.
More details on the defense contractor’s influence peddling with Collins, Lindsey Graham, etc. Other reports say Kao confessed to spending $1 million to sway lawmakers from both parties, especially those on the Senate Appropriations Committee. IIRC $40 million was appropriated to his company and their funded research resulted in ZERO products developed for the military. (Kao was also bilking PPP, Cares Act and other government monies). Hawaii’s reporting on Kao is extensive. Since he had a satellite office in Maine while this transpired perhaps the excellent Maine AG has standing to pursue a case. [https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/06/rigging-the-system-the-martin-kao-case-offers-an-inside-view-of-pay-to-play-politics/](https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/06/rigging-the-system-the-martin-kao-case-offers-an-inside-view-of-pay-to-play-politics/)
Excerpt: Much of the lawsuit focuses on the illegal campaign contributions Kao and others made to Collins and the super PAC that was supporting her, known as **the 1820 PAC.**
In 2019, Kao, Chen and Lum Kee maxed out their contributions to Collins’ campaign as did several of their family members who they asked to make contributions on their behalf.
Those contributions were illegal on two fronts because government contractors are prohibited from donating to political campaigns and federal law prohibits making conduit or straw donations through others.
According to federal prosecutors, the point of the contributions was to garner influence with Collins, who was a high-ranking member of the Appropriations Committee.
Collins joined Kao and other Navatek employees in August 2019 to celebrate an $8 million contract the company received from the Navy to conduct research in her home state of Maine. She visited Navatek’s offices, posed for photos with Kao and [issued a press release](https://web.archive.org/web/20200207142052/https://www.collins.senate.gov/newsroom/senator-collins-joins-celebration-8-million-navy-contract-awarded-navatek-portland) stating that she “strongly advocated for the funding that made this research possible.” [Note: Other reporting contains email exchanges where Kao tells colleagues he anticipates another $32 million for the company, which tracks with reports that $40 million total was appropriated.]
About a month after the celebration, on Sept. 16, 2019, Kao sent an email to her campaign finance director from his company account.
“We are here to help anyway we can … financially or whatever,” he said.
The campaign worker, who has yet to be identified in any court records, responded with a message saying that Kao had already donated $5,600, which was the maximum allowable under the law, but “if you have friends or family members that would be willing to donate please don’t hesitate to send them my way.”
Kao promised more “max out” donations would be headed to the campaign shortly. The following day Chen and Lum Kee each gave $5,600 to Collins’ campaign using their corporate credit cards. Their donations were followed up about nine days later by max contributions by two of their family members.
Shortly thereafter, in November 2019, Kao, Chen and Lum Kee started talking about forming a new LLC to send even more money Collins’ way.
They called it the Society for Young Women Scientists and Engineers, or SYWSE for short.
That month, Kao emailed a representative of 1820 PAC detailing their plan. He said the new LLC would be used to “make the donations” and that it would be “super vague and very difficult to get any background info on.”
On Dec. 31, 2019, Kao’s wife, Lam, who was the registered agent for SYWSE under the alias Jennifer Lam, cut a check to 1820 PAC for $150,000.
>“Whatever … just a pack of bitches getting free $.”
>
>Martin Kao
The donation caught the attention of the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C., which [filed a complaint](https://www.civilbeat.org/beat/watchdog-asks-fec-to-probe-hawaii-companys-150k-political-donation/) with the Federal Election Commission on Feb. 3, 2020, saying that SYWSE appeared to have been formed for the express purpose of hiding the true identity of the donors, which is illegal.
According to the lawsuit, the CLC complaint spooked Kao and others at Navatek, and they “immediately hatched a plan to cover up the unlawful conduct and obstruct the federal investigation.”
The new course, which they later discussed with their lawyers and other hired political consultants, was to turn the SYWSE into a legitimate charity organization that gave scholarships to women pursuing careers in engineering and science.
Damn if only this news came out before the Collins campaign leaked the Platner allegations. Oops did I say that out loud?
I’m not even a Mainer and am counting the seconds until I no longer have to hear about this fucking crone without actively seeking information about her ever again.