William Turton

My name is Avi Asher-Schapiro, and I cover the Trump administration.

My name's William Turton, and I cover the FBI.

What's been lost when you get rid of these anti-corruption officials within the government?

They learned about one of those investigations that had been lost, and were able to review a bunch of emails and other documents that the FBI had gathered.

Then Trump Gutted DOJ's Anti-Corruption Unit.

Written by Molly Redden, Avi Asher-Shapiro, William Turton, and Kirsten Berg.

Published by ProPublica on the twenty-second of September, twenty twenty-six.

Read by Adrian Walker for Noah.

You're listening to FBI Eyed Susan Collins for Helping a Big Donor Land Contracts.

Then Trump Gutted DOJ's Anti-Corruption Unit.

Written by Molly Redden, Avi Asher-Shapiro, William Turton, and Kirsten Berg for ProPublica.

Read by Adrian Walker for NOAA.

Stay with us.

And joining me now, one of the reporters who broke that ProPublica investigation into Susan Collins alleged pay to play scheme, William Turton.

Well, it is good to see you.

Thanks for joining me this weekend.

The reporters explain how many of the claims made by Collins and her top aides this week, including the one you just heard, are incorrect and misleading.

William Turton is one of the reporters who broke this story for ProPublica, and he joins me now.

Um, great reporting, first of all.

Um, just walk me through...

Able to bring money home to Maine.

But-

Or to Hawaiian defense contractors, as you will read in William Turton's fantastic reporting, along with his, uh, co-reporters in ProPublica.

Great job.

September twenty-third, twenty twenty-six.

Yesterday, William Turton, Avi Asher-Shapiro, Molly Redden, and Kristin Berg of ProPublica published a blockbuster story reporting that the anti-corruption group of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating Senator Susan Collins, a Republican of Maine, for engaging in a pay-to-play scheme in which defense contractor Navitek made illegal donations to her twenty twenty campaign and later got multi-million dollar contracts from the government.

Collins is the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

And yet, the story continues, when he returned to the White House in twenty twenty-five, Trump fired the investigators building the case and largely stopped investigating public corruption.

ProPublica reports, quote, agents had enough evidence to pursue a sweeping bribery probe that could ensnare top lawmakers of both political parties, unquote, but then President Trump returned to office, purged the FBI's anti-corruption unit, and the investigation reportedly died.

William Turton is one of the reporters on the story from ProPublica, and he joins me now.

William, let's start with the people around Senator Collins.

Her deputy chief of staff put out a statement today that read in part, quote, the seven-year-old allegations made against Senator Collins and her staff in this piece are categorically false.

And the FBI knew that as well, right? They had to independently investigate and corroborate his claims, as did we.

And the evidence they found in emails between Cow, the company, the lobbyists they hired, Collins' campaign, the Super PAC, interviews with other Navitek executives about their meetings with top PAC employees, told a different story.

William Turton with ProPublica, thank you so much for your time today.

Appreciate it.