The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way

Originally published at: The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way - TPM – Talking Points Memo

This story was originally published by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive their biggest stories as soon as they’re published. In the final weeks of 2019, a top fundraiser for Sen. Susan Collins walked into a perilous meeting at a Corner Bakery in Washington, D.C. For the first time…

When Collins heard about the investigation, she was deeply concerned.

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She is the political counterpart of the sweet, little old lady who poisons a 3rd husband before she gets caught.

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I wonder how this is playing in Maine. Do the voters even know about it?

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Is this a surprise to anyone? It seems Kao’s only mistake was donating to the campaign itself, rather than going via the PAC from the beginning, as that would have broken no laws on campaign contribution limits. What he did is no different from Boeing etc.

If payment was made after the contracts were issued, its a gratuity not a bribe and therefore legal, per the subprime court

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More details:

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“I’m very concerned there may have been gambling going on here,” she said, as the croupier pushed towering piles of chips across the table with his rake.

“Here are your winnings, Senator Collins.”

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Wow. What a great report from ProPublica. Her opponent might want to consider sending out the reporl to all the Republicans in Maine.

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It’s currently on the marquee spot on the Portland Press Herald’s website. It’s got 282 comments so far. Most ‘hot’ articles see 150 or so, and this has only been up for about six hours so far.

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She’s dirty as sin, from top to bottom, and most likely from Day One.

Screwing the rubes, cosplaying virtue, and pocketing lucre.

But almost certainly just the tip of a Republican iceberg for (at least) the last ten years.

How many more of her GOP ilk – in the Senate, House, and elsewhere – are in on this racket?

(“All of them Katie!”)

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You just know this stuff has been going on for ages, but to see it in black and white turns the stomach.
I’m sure glad that I send money to ProPublica. Wish there were more businesses out there like PP.

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I’ve always thought of her as Ernestine, the telephone operator on SNL: “We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re the Phone Company.” Lily Tomlin…

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Cleta Mitchell does get around, doesn’t she?

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Hilarious that it was a misspelling that caught the watchdog’s eye. These people couldn’t even spell the name of the phony LLC donor correctly.

Less hilarious though certainly explanatory would be if Collins is a common crook. (“Ah, so that’s how she had money to beat Sara Gideon in 2020” I’d be pretty ready to sign on to.)

Sounds like the aggressive, grandstanding CEO-type got caught while the slicker operators kept a low enough profile to last until Trump II, when the unrelated (maybe) purges of prosecutors shut down the investigation.

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She delivered on Kavanaugh, so now it was time for Trump to come through and amazing enough he did.

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Apparently, we are just now discovering just exactly what all those sternly written letters written by Susan Collins aimed to accomplish…

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This is crony capitalism and corruption. Sen. Collins doesn’t seem to be too “concerned” about fraud and so needs to go to jail. The voters of Maine can send her there on Nov. 3rd, 2026.

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Though I don’t live in Maine, Troy Daniels’ campaign already sent me an email about Collins’s corruption.

Errr, Troy Jackson? If so, I got one too…

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Is it too early to name a front runner for the Golden Duke?