Exclusive: Susan Collins’ plight gets worse with new corruption allegation, possible ethics probe – By Roger Sollenberger (Salon) / Sept 9 2020
Ethics watchdog accuses Maine senator of “blatant corruption” after GOP tax bill sweetened husband’s investments
The American Democracy Legal Fund (ADLF) sent a letter Wednesday to the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee asking to open an investigation into allegations that Sen. Susan Collins of Maine — a Republican who faces a tight re-election battle this fall — used her office to financially benefit her husband and, subsequently, herself.
The charges, laid out in the letter and exclusively obtained by Salon, are informed by a recent HuffPost article reporting that Collins — who now trails Democrat Sara Gideon in most polls, in one of the most closely-watched races in the country — has advocated and voted for policies that benefited her husband’s consulting and lobbying business.
“This is a clear pattern of unethical and corrupt behavior by Sen. Susan Collins and the Senate Ethics Committee must begin an immediate investigation into her abuse of office,” ADLF’s Brad Woodhouse told Salon in a statement. “We are in the middle of a pandemic that has cost more than 180,000 Americans their lives, and instead of focusing on helping her constituents, Sen. Collins is using her office to enrich herself and her husband. This blatant corruption must be thoroughly investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee.”
Salon can also report that, according to Collins’ latest financial disclosures, her husband’s investments in eight companies as much as doubled following Collins’ vote in favor of the GOP’s 2017 tax bill — increasing in value by perhaps $340,000 to $600,000 as those companies took in billions of dollars in corporate tax benefits and stock buybacks.
Continue to article: https://www.salon.com/2020/09/09/exclusive-susan-collins-plight-gets-worse-with-new-corruption-allegation-possible-ethics-probe/
