Graft, self-dealing, and illegal money-grubbing have sloshed through all three branches of government, convincing nearly 90 percent of Americans that corruption is widespread. But without the dogged investigative journalism from the nonprofit news site ProPublica, much of this would have gone undetected (e.g., Supreme Court justices’ financial nondisclosure and gifts). In just the last couple of weeks, ProPublica unveiled two more blockbuster investigations.
Its account of Vladimir Putin-aligned Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev’s payment for Don Jr.’s lavish wedding reception rocked the White House and even shattered the usual MAGA solidarity front. Trump’s flunkies first denied anyone in Trump’s regime knew who he was. Now Trump insists the money was repaid. (Anyone got a receipt?) It’s all too little, too late.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), who will inherit the gavel on House Oversight if Democrats win the majority, wrote to Chief of Staff Susan Wiles, citing the details laid out in ProPublica’s report: “Despite only having met Mr. Trump in September 2025— less than a year before the wedding in question—[Umar] Kremlev reportedly paid to rent out one of the private islands used for the wedding that typically costs $100,000 per night, along with other expensive items, such as a $70,000 fireworks show.”
He continued:
The secretive, close relationship between the son of a sitting U.S. President and a member of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s inner circle raises serious national security and public corruption concerns. A Russian oligarch reportedly financing parts of a lavish wedding for the owner of multiple firms holding Department of Defense contracts is all the more disturbing. Given that Mr. Trump reportedly advises his father, the President of the United States, on issues of national security and vetting White House personnel, any possible foreign entanglement deserves close scrutiny.
Garcia demanded documents and answers, requests that the White House will undoubtedly ignore. More importantly, he apparently told Wiles to “preserve all documents, communications, and other materials” relevant to the potential investigation, putting anyone who might destroy evidence or interfere with Congress in legal jeopardy.
The facts are disturbing enough that even some Republicans are upset. Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) wrote to Judiciary Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to demand an inquiry “into potential misuses of presidential family relationships for financial benefit, preferential treatment, or special access to certain people.”
Nominally citing Republicans’ years-old complaints about Hunter Biden, Curtis focused heavily on “the relationships of President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., with foreign business figures and the acceptance of significant gifts.” He too relied on ProPublica’s reports about “a lavish wedding afterparty, on a private island, provided by Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev, who reportedly traveled to China as part of a delegation accompanying Vladimir Putin shortly before giving the gift.” Curtis added:
These concerns are compounded by Donald Trump Jr.’s active promotion of family-backed cryptocurrency ventures, his continued pursuit of international real estate deals involving direct meetings with foreign heads of state, and his reported investments in defense contracting. This pattern extends to his significant financial and advisory ties to prediction-market platforms that depend on favorable federal regulatory decisions being considered by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
These reports raise legitimate questions about foreign access to members of a sitting president’s family and whether such relationships can create actual or perceived expectations of favorable treatment. They also may create expectations of a returned favor that would not be in the best interests of the American people or our allies, and could even create national security vulnerabilities.
Perhaps hoping to give Trump (and Republicans) some cover, he pleaded, “The country should not have to accept one standard for the family of a Republican president and another for the family of a Democratic president. Nor should congressional oversight begin and end when control of the White House changes hands.”
In other words, Curtis is issuing a warning that things will go much worse for Trump if Democrats unilaterally run with the ball and focus exclusively on Don Jr. This White House surely won’t take him up on his invitation to get ahead of the story, but the dam may be about to break. By Tuesday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) had joined Curtis’s call to investigate.
Then this week, ProPublica dropped another shocking story, this time concerning an extensive FBI investigation involving Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the perennially “concerned,” phony moderate (who confirmed two justices to the Supreme Court that destroyed abortion rights).
ProPublica’s report detailed a 2019 meeting between Scott Reed, head of the Collins Super PAC, and three executives from defense contractor Navatek — which Collins had helped “land a multimillion-dollar Navy research contract in Maine.” ProPublica reported that Reed asked them for a $500,000 donation, although “[g]overnment contractors are banned from making political contributions,” and any offer of “donations to Collins in exchange for an official action, or for Collins to accept, would constitute criminal bribery.” The account explained:
To skirt campaign finance laws and conceal the source of the funds, Navatek planned to funnel the donation through a shell company. The CEO wanted assurance that Collins would know where the money came from. Reed confirmed that she would, the executive said — and that Navatek would get its government contracts.
After the Corner Bakery meeting, Navatek’s CEO, Martin Kao, sent an initial $150,000 to the Collins super PAC using the shell company. Two months later, he told Navatek executives that Collins committed to getting the company $32 million in naval contracts, according to an internal company email reviewed by ProPublica.
Kao, who faced charges for illegal campaign contributions (and had his own credibility issues), spilled his story to the FBI, which “opened up an entirely new phase of the investigation… [and] sifted through hundreds of thousands of records seized during Kao’s arrest and found that many were consistent with his account of widespread influence peddling.” But the FBI didn’t get very far, since the Trump regime “eviscerated” public corruption investigations and enlisted law enforcement to go after his enemies.
Collins’s office now “vigorously” denies wrongdoing. Neither she nor anyone on her staff was ever charged. However, she will face intense pressure to answer questions about the story.
Her opponent in the Senate race, Troy Jackson, pounced. “This is corruption of the highest order. Susan Collins delivered millions in taxpayer dollars for a corrupt donor bankrolling her campaign, and then Donald Trump helped her cover it up,” he alleged. “No wonder she voted with him 96% of the time and has rubberstamped his agenda to hurt Maine.” He continued, “Susan Collins doesn’t care that we’re losing our health care, that ICE is killing people on the streets, and that we’ve been dragged into a pointless war — as long as her donors get their contracts and her coffers get filled. We deserve answers about every contract and every conversation that Collins and her team facilitated on the backs of taxpayers. The jig is up.”
Without ProPublica’s work, neither of these corruption stories would have come to light. Its undaunted, unbiased, and unrelenting effort to expose wrongdoing and shine a bright light on public and private corruption deserves Americans’ deep gratitude. The outlet is a national treasure.
Jennifer Rubin is a national treasure! Thanks for your great work in keeping us all informed.
"Senator Collins! When did you stop taking bribes from defense contractors?"