The Hound | Sept. 23

Hi there,

It’s Wednesday. A convicted defense contractor named Martin Kao spent years bribing members of Congress — trading hundreds of thousands in illegal donations for tens of millions in rigged federal contracts. He confessed everything to the FBI in a 50-page document naming dozens of lawmakers and staffers from both parties. By late 2024, agents had enough to launch a sweeping bribery probe, then Trump returned to office, and shut the investigation down.

🖊️ Sign the petition to call on Congress to open independent investigations into every lawmaker implicated in Kao's confession — and on the media to cover this not as a single-senator story, but as a systemic exposé of how defense contracts are bought and sold on Capitol Hill. Trump didn't just shut down a bribery probe. He shut down the only institution capable of holding Congress accountable to the public.

Sen. Susan Collins is the most prominent name, but the scandal is far larger. Navatek courted senators from at least seven states. A new FBI investigation was specifically approved before it was killed — focused, in part, on Sen. Lindsey Graham. The two agents who built the case are now gone. The Public Integrity Section that would have prosecuted it collapsed. The public deserves reporting that treats that as the constitutional emergency it is.

In addition, a MAGA festival featuring Kid Rock was cancelled after dismal ticket sales. And Trump muses about blowing up Iran — which would be a war crime — in front of the entire United Nations.

Read about these, and more, in today’s stories:

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

Trump Brags About Looting Another Country in Bonkers U.N. Address (The New Republic)

Can the States Stop the Corporate Domination of Our Politics? (The American Prospect)

MAGA Festival With Kid Rock Canceled After No One Wanted to Go (The New Republic)

John Fetterman Is Fundraising on GOP Donor Email Lists (The Intercept)

Sickened Coal Miners Plead for Their Black Lung Benefits as Cases Surge (Mother Jones)

Pennsylvania’s AI Boom Is Repeating Old Patterns of Exploitation (Inside Climate News)

Until next time,

Harry from The Hound

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