Stories

Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Sep 23, 2026

ProPublica Reports the FBI's Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins Over a Defense Contractor's $150,000 to Her Super PAC — Until Trump Returned and the Probe Was Dropped — Collins Calls It "Clearly a Political Hit Job," John Thune Blames "a Left-Wing Outlet," and Her Democratic Opponent Says "This Is Corruption of the Highest Order"

On September 22, 2026, ProPublica reported that an FBI public-corruption squad had been seeking approval by late 2024 to open a wider bribery investigation touching Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), built on previously undisclosed FBI interviews with Martin Kao, the former CEO of Hawaii defense contractor Navatek, who is serving an 87-month sentence after pleading guilty in 2022 to illegal campaign contributions and fraud. Kao told agents that after a November 2019 meeting with the head of the pro-Collins super PAC, who allegedly asked for $500,000, he routed $150,000 to the PAC through a shell company, and that Collins had committed to steering Navy research contracts to the company. According to ProPublica, the inquiry was abandoned after Trump returned to office and FBI Director Kash Patel removed the agents and dismantled the unit handling it. Collins, who faces Democrat Troy Jackson in one of the most competitive Senate races of the midterms, denies any wrongdoing, noting that the Biden Justice Department found none in 2021, and blamed the report on Chuck Schumer. The FBI said the allegations "had already been investigated by the FBI years ago and ultimately found nothing implicating Senator Collins or Senator Collins' campaign." The New York Times separately reported that agents had found little to corroborate Kao's claims.

“[Thune called the report a] political hit job by a left-wing outlet. … I don't think there's ever been any implication that she or her campaign were in any way implicated in that.”
John Thune (R-SD) · Sep 23, 2026

Sep 16, 2026· Updated

Kash Patel Tells the Senate Judiciary Committee the FBI Dropped Its Automatic Bar on Applicants With Bestiality Histories Because "We Did Not Want to Punish Victims" — John Kennedy Asks "What Planet Did You Parachute In From?," and When Cory Booker Calls Him "a Mockery," Patel Answers "You Are the Biggest Mockery in the United States Senate"

On September 15, 2026, FBI Director Kash Patel appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee for its annual oversight hearing, seven weeks before the midterm elections. Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) opened by crediting Patel with managing "many challenges, both internal and external." Ranking member Dick Durbin (D-IL) called him "the least qualified and most partisan FBI director in our nation's history," accusing him of turning the bureau toward the president's grievances, including false claims about the 2020 election, and of having "gutted" hiring standards. The hiring standards dominated much of the hearing. CBS News had reported that the FBI no longer automatically disqualifies applicants who have engaged in bestiality or sex solicitation. Patel defended the change as protecting trafficking and abuse victims: "We did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked." Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked why Patel had not asked the official who recommended it "what planet did you parachute in from?" Senators also pressed Patel over The Atlantic's reporting on his drinking, which he denies and over which he has sued the magazine; his use of a government jet to attend the Winter Olympics in Italy; the removal of agents who worked on Iran; and the midterms. Asked by Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) to pledge not to interfere with the November election, Patel said he would "not participate in your charade of lies." After Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) called him an "incompetent lackey," the two traded insults, with Patel telling Booker "You are the biggest mockery in the United States Senate, and you're sitting next to Schiff."

“You damn well better preserve records, because we're going to be investigating all these hundreds of wrongful terminations, and we're going to hold you accountable. … I fully expect that he will lie to the Congress and hope that he doesn't get caught – but we will be investigating. … None of it passes the smell test.”
Adam Schiff (D-CA) · Sep 16, 2026

A Sitting Congressman Learns the FBI Recorded His Calls — Rep. Suhas Subramanyam Releases the DOJ Notice Showing a Wiretap Swept Up His Conversations With the Virginia Senate Leader Who Ran the Redistricting Referendum

On September 3, 2026 Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA-10) released a notice he said the Justice Department and FBI had sent him disclosing that a federal judge authorized a wiretap in early March 2026 that intercepted some of his own phone calls between March 6 and April 5. The tap was placed as part of the Justice Department's corruption investigation into L. Louise Lucas, the president pro tempore of the Virginia Senate, over an alleged bribery scheme connected to a marijuana dispensary business she co-owns. Lucas has not been charged and denies wrongdoing. Subramanyam did not dispute that he was incidentally captured rather than targeted, but pointed at the calendar: the interception window sat at the peak of campaigning for Virginia's redistricting referendum, which Lucas helped lead, and overlapped with the House Oversight Committee's push to make then-Attorney General Pam Bondi testify about the Epstein files. He placed the wiretap in a line that runs through the Department's investigations of Democratic state attorneys general and the former FBI director, and said the surveillance would not deter Democratic oversight of the administration. The FBI declined to comment and the Justice Department did not respond to reporters. The investigation itself predates the current administration — it was opened under President Biden — and the FBI's May 6, 2026 search of Lucas's Portsmouth office and cannabis business had already drawn a round of statements from Virginia Democrats, most of whom stopped short of asserting the probe was manufactured while insisting the political context could not be ignored.

“If this surveillance was done to scare us and to get Democrats to stop pushing back against Trump's political overreach, they are mistaken. We will not back down. We will continue our investigations into this President and his corrupt administration.”
Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) · Sep 3, 2026

Grassley and Ron Johnson Say the FBI Used a Fake Classification Marking — "Round River" — to Wall Off Biden Family Records From Congress, and Demand Blanche, Patel and Clayton Release Them

In a letter dated August 17, 2026, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson asked Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to release records tied to "Operation Round River," an FBI effort that whistleblowers have said sought to discredit derogatory information about Hunter Biden as disinformation ahead of the 2020 election. The senators' central allegation is procedural: documents obtained by Grassley's office carry classification banner markings that list "Round River" itself as a classification code. Grassley wrote that this made it appear the FBI under then-Director Christopher Wray was treating Round River as a Special Access Program when, by every account the committee has received, it was not one — the practical effect being to bury the material in a compartment neither Congress nor the public could reach. The senators asked for the underlying records to be declassified to the fullest extent permitted by law, including a December 2019 email. As of publication no responsive statement from the Justice Department, FBI or ODNI had been reported, and no Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee had responded on the record.

“To date, the available records cause serious concerns about how federal law enforcement and the Intelligence Community used its resources to downgrade allegations of criminality relating to the Biden family apparently without sufficient investigation. The records also cause concern about how federal records were stored and managed.”
Ron Johnson (R-WI) · Aug 17, 2026

A Federal Judge Blocks the Trump Administration From Scrapping the FBI’s Greenbelt Headquarters and Diverting the Money to a Building Across the Street From the White House

On August 17, 2026, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang permanently enjoined the FBI and the General Services Administration from moving the Bureau's future headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington, ruling that the agencies "exceeded their authority" and acted unlawfully under the Administrative Procedure Act. The dispute goes back to 2023, when GSA — running a competition Congress had structured in 2022 and 2023 appropriations laws — selected Greenbelt, Maryland, over sites in Springfield, Virginia, and Landover, Maryland, for a new FBI headquarters to replace the crumbling J. Edgar Hoover Building. In July 2025 the FBI and GSA announced they were abandoning that selection and would instead move the Bureau into the Reagan Building, blocks from the Hoover site. Maryland and Prince George's County sued, arguing the administration could not override a congressionally structured site selection or redirect the construction money Congress had appropriated for it. Judge Chuang agreed, holding that the statutes required GSA to pick from the three short-listed sites outside Washington. Maryland's Democratic officials — Gov. Wes Moore, Attorney General Anthony Brown, Prince George's County Executive Aisha Braveboy, and all eight Democrats in the state's congressional delegation — cast the ruling as a rebuke of an administration that treated a congressional appropriation as optional. The county has estimated the project at more than 7,500 jobs and roughly $4 billion in added GDP. The FBI pushed back hard in a statement, saying "the court has chosen to impermissibly intervene for political reasons" and that "this is not the first time courts have tried to undermine the administration in its goal to make government more cost-effective."

“Maryland and Prince George's County committed more than a decade of work to earn the FBI headquarters and pledged hundreds of millions of dollars. By blocking the Trump Administration's unlawful attempt to move the FBI to the Reagan Building and divert the funds Congress set aside for this project, the Court has cleared the path back to Greenbelt.”
Anthony Brown (D-MD) · Aug 17, 2026

Congressional Black Caucus Asks Attorney General Blanche and FBI Director Patel for a Federal Review of Nolan Wells's Death, as Mississippi's Governor Blames Civil Rights Activists

Nolan Wells, an 18-year-old Black college athlete from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, went missing on July 4, 2026, after taking a boat to Horn Island — a barrier island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast — with a group of white friends for an Independence Day gathering. His body was recovered from the island's shoreline days later. State authorities have said he may have accidentally drowned; his family disputes that account, and a second, family-commissioned autopsy produced findings the family says the first did not. On August 12, 2026, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (D-N.Y.) and caucus members sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel asking the Justice Department to determine whether an independent federal review — including a possible civil rights investigation — is warranted, and demanding a written response within seven days. The letter said that "more than 30 days after his disappearance and death, significant questions remain unanswered about the events of July 4, 2026." The Justice Department confirmed receiving the letter and said the appropriate personnel were "reviewing it carefully." The caucus made its case publicly on August 13 at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, where Wells's parents appeared alongside Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), attorney Ben Crump, and the Rev. Al Sharpton. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the state's only Black member of Congress, had already called for FBI involvement in late July, citing the state's history and inconsistencies between the two autopsies. Ocean Springs is not in Thompson's district. Mississippi's Republican statewide officials have pushed back on the pressure campaign. Gov. Tate Reeves blamed Crump and Sharpton for threats made against witnesses in the case, saying they were "stoking division for personal gain," and Attorney General Lynn Fitch defended the handling of the investigation by state and local law enforcement. Federal authorities separately arrested three people over alleged violent threats connected to the case, and the family's attorney has said a grand jury review could come within 30 days.

“Here we are again today, here for the loss of another black young man in our community. That is the reason why we’re asking for the accountability: to make sure that this is not just swept under the rug.”
Lucy McBath (D-GA) · Aug 13, 2026

FBI Executes Warrant at Fulton County Election Office Over 2020 Vote

On January 28, 2026, the FBI executed a search warrant at Fulton County's Elections Hub in Union City, Georgia, seeking all physical ballots, ballot images, tabulator tapes and voter rolls from the 2020 presidential election; an evidence retrieval team loaded roughly 700 boxes of ballots into waiting trucks. The warrant cites potential violations of election record retention and election official fraud statutes. This follows Fulton County's December 2025 admission that tabulator tapes weren't properly signed and some documents were misplaced. The search comes as FBI Director Kash Patel pursues investigations aligned with Trump's claims about the 2020 election. It was carried out without advance notice to Fulton County officials or to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who called it a waste of time and tax dollars. Georgia's senators condemned the search, and Sen. Raphael Warnock later led the entire Fulton County congressional delegation in a February 3 letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding answers.

“The investigation is a waste of time and tax dollars. Leaders should stop trying to change the past with baseless and repackaged claims.”
Brad Raffensperger (R-GA) · Jan 28, 2026