缅因州参议员苏珊·柯林斯在FBI调查相关指控的消息传出后，将她用联邦合同换取竞选资金的指控斥为“完全不实”。
Susan Collins, the US senator of Maine, has dismissed allegations that she traded federal contracts for campaign cash as “completely false” after it emerged the FBI examined the claims.
当被记者问及上周一名缅因州律师提交的道德投诉时，这位共和党参议员——目前正在为11月美国中期选举连任而竞选——表示，这些指控是2020年的旧账，已被司法部、FBI和联邦选举委员会驳回。
Asked by a reporter about an ethics complaint filed last week by a Maine attorney, the Republican – currently campaigning to retain her seat ahead of November’s US midterm elections – said the allegations were recycled from 2020 and had been rejected by the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Federal Election Commission.
“这些指控完全不实，”柯林斯说。她表示，是缅因大学，而非国防承包商Navatek，请求她支持一项研究拨款，她从未听说过这家公司。她说，该公司的前首席执行官马丁·高是“一个骗子”，她和大学都不了解此人。
“The allegations are completely false,” Collins said. She said the University of Maine, not the defense contractor Navatek, had asked her to back a research grant, and that she had never heard of the company. Its former chief executive, Martin Kao, she said, was “a crook” whom neither she, nor the university, knew about.
“我们有一张他与我以及我办公室其他人会面的照片，拍摄时间在他做出任何一笔捐款之前的好几个月，”她补充道。“他再次编造这个故事，希望法官会宽大处理，或者检察官会宽大处理。”
“We have a picture of his meeting with me and with other people in my office that is many months before he ever made a single contribution,” she added. “He spun this story up again in the hopes that the judge would be lenient, or the prosecutor would be.”ProPublica reported in September that Kao, Navatek’s former president and CEO, told FBI agents and prosecutors that his company won millions in federal funding by bankrolling politicians, with Collins his most important patron. Kao, who is serving 87 months for fraud and campaign finance crimes, claimed the head of Collins’s Super Pac asked him for $500,000 in 2019. He claimed he then sent $150,000 through a shell company, and that Collins’s office later promised to secure $32m in naval contracts. ProPublica reported that the Senate allocated at least $10m that year based on Navatek’s proposals, funding Collins says she backed only because the University of Maine asked her to, but did not report that the full $32m was awarded.
《公共广播公司》9月报道称，Navatek前总裁兼首席执行官高告诉FBI特工和检察官，他的公司通过资助政客赢得了数百万美元的联邦资金，而柯林斯是他最重要的赞助人。高因欺诈和竞选资金犯罪正在服87个月的刑期，他声称柯林斯的超级政治行动委员会负责人于2019年向他索要50万美元。他声称随后通过一家空壳公司汇出了15万美元，并且柯林斯办公室后来承诺争取3200万美元的海军合同。
《公共广播公司》报道称，参议院当年根据Navatek的提案至少拨款1000万美元，柯林斯表示她之所以支持，仅仅是因为缅因大学请求她这样做，但报道并未称全部3200万美元已被拨付。
The outlet said it reviewed a trove of FBI evidence and thousands of pages of legal records, and interviewed dozens of people familiar with Navatek and the inquiry, and independently corroborated much of Kao’s account. Among the emails it cited was one in which the Super Pac chair, Scott Reed, replied “Very smart” to Kao’s shell company plan, and another asking for Kao’s phone number so Collins could thank him.
该媒体称其审查了大量FBI证据和数千页法律记录，并采访了数十名熟悉Navatek及调查情况的人士，独立证实了高奥描述的大部分内容。其引用的电子邮件之一显示，超级政治行动委员会主席斯科特·里德回复高奥的空壳公司计划时写道：“非常聪明”；另一封邮件则是请求提供高奥的电话号码，以便柯林斯能够向他致谢。
ProPublica also reported that FBI agents sought to open a broader bribery investigation in 2024, which collapsed after Donald Trump returned to office and purged the bureau’s public corruption teams.
ProPublica还报道称，FBI特工在2024年试图启动一项更广泛的贿赂调查，但该调查在唐纳德·特朗普重返白宫并清洗了该局公共腐败团队之后宣告失败。
No one in Collins’s orbit was charged. Kao declined to be interviewed, and Reed denied discussing Kao or Navatek with Collins or her staff.
柯林斯身边的任何人均未被起诉。高奥拒绝接受采访，里德否认曾与柯林斯或其工作人员讨论过高奥或Navatek的事宜。
Pressed on why she would not welcome an ethics inquiry to clear her name, Collins said it was not up to her, and dismissed the complaint as the work of “partisan Democrats” and Valerie Adams, a lawyer in Maine “who lost her election” in the June primary to be district attorney.
当被问及为何她不欢迎开展道德调查以洗清自己名誉时，柯林斯表示这不是她能决定的，并将该投诉驳斥为“党派民主党人”以及缅因州律师瓦莱丽·亚当斯的工作——该律师在六月份的初选中落选，未能成为地方检察官。“我甚至从未被访谈过，因为根本没有相关证据，”柯林斯说。
“I was never even interviewed because there was no evidence for it,” Collins said.