FBI Reportedly Closed 2025 Probe Into Collins Campaign Staff Conduct
If the allegation is substantiated, it would raise questions about how federal investigators apply prosecutorial discretion to sitting senators' political organizations.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation reportedly shut down a 2025 inquiry into alleged wrongdoing by staff connected to Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins' political operation, according to a Daily Caller report published September 23, 2026. The report centers on allegations involving individuals associated with Collins' campaign and a figure identified as Martin Kao.
The Daily Caller report states the FBI closed the investigation before it reached a charging decision. The precise legal theory under which the inquiry was opened, the specific conduct alleged, and the identities of all individuals under scrutiny were not fully detailed in the published account, which noted that the source material was partially paywalled at time of access.
Sen. Collins, a Republican who has represented Maine in the Senate since 1997, has won four Senate elections, most recently in 2020 when she defeated Democrat Sara Gideon by approximately 8.6 percentage points, according to the Maine Secretary of State's certified results. Collins is expected to face re-election in 2026.
Martin Kao was identified in prior public reporting as a Republican political donor and businessman. Federal Election Commission records show contributions from individuals with the name Martin Kao to various Republican committees, though the specific contributions relevant to the Collins campaign would require a targeted search of FEC filings at FEC.gov under the committee designation for Collins for Senator.
The FBI does not publicly confirm or deny the existence of investigations as a matter of standing policy, a practice codified in internal Department of Justice guidelines. Neither the FBI's press office nor Sen. Collins' office had issued a public statement addressing the allegation at the time of publication, according to the Daily Caller's account.
Allegations that federal law enforcement agencies have closed politically sensitive investigations before completion are not new to either party. In 2020 and 2021, congressional Republicans and Democrats each raised concerns about the handling of separate FBI inquiries touching on political figures, with both parties calling for inspector general reviews when investigations involving allied figures were perceived as overly aggressive and those involving opposing figures were perceived as insufficiently pursued.
Oversight of FBI investigative decisions falls to multiple bodies. The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General has statutory authority under 5 U.S.C. App. 3 to review FBI operations, including decisions to open or close cases. Congressional oversight of the FBI is shared between the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, as well as the respective intelligence committees under their oversight mandates.
If a formal complaint about the closure of this investigation was filed with the DOJ Inspector General, that complaint would become part of the OIG's intake record, which is subject to Freedom of Information Act requests under 5 U.S.C. 552. No OIG report addressing this specific matter appeared in the OIG's public reports index as of the date of this article.
Several material facts remain unknown. It is not established in available public records what statute or statutes formed the basis of the inquiry, who within the FBI or DOJ authorized the closure, whether any prosecutorial memoranda were prepared before the case was closed, or whether any congressional referral was made. The document most likely to answer these questions would be an internal FBI EC (Electronic Communication) closing the investigation, which would be obtainable through litigation under FOIA or a congressional subpoena.
Sen. Collins' campaign finance filings with the FEC, available at FEC.gov under committee ID numbers assigned to Collins for Senator, are public records that could be reviewed to identify any financial transactions or disclosures relevant to the allegations. No FEC enforcement action against Collins' campaign committee appeared in the FEC's public enforcement database as of this writing.
The Congressional Times will update this report as additional public records become available, including any statement from the FBI, the DOJ, Sen. Collins' office, or any named individual.