How the FBI purge ended a probe involving Graham and Clyburn

The record

According to a ProPublica investigation published on 20 October 2026, the FBI opened an inquiry in early 2025 into alleged cash-for-contracts arrangements between Navatek, a Hawaii-based naval research contractor, and three members of South Carolina’s congressional delegation: the late Senator Lindsey Graham, Representative James Clyburn and Representative Joe Wilson.

The case rested largely on the account of Martin Kao, Navatek’s former chief executive. Kao pleaded guilty in 2022 to illegal campaign donations and loan fraud and, according to ProPublica, was sentenced in 2025 to 87 months in prison. He told agents that his company’s business model was to win government contracts through political donations.

A $40,000 dinner and a $10 million contract

At the centre of the file is a dinner on 3 March 2020 at a Washington steakhouse. According to emails reviewed by ProPublica, Graham’s campaign set a $40,000 fundraising minimum for the meeting. Kao told the FBI that Graham agreed to steer a Navy contract of about $10 million to Navatek in South Carolina and asked for $100,000 in campaign pledges in return.

Michael Tongour, the lobbyist who arranged the dinner, confirmed that cheques were handed to a Graham fundraiser and that the senator stayed only briefly. He rejected the central claim that a deal was made: “If I had seen that kind of quid pro quo, I would have quit earlier.”

Kao told agents he reached similar understandings with Clyburn and Wilson, each of whom, he said, asked for $100,000. FBI records cited by ProPublica show $20,000 in donations from Kao and his relatives to Clyburn days after a scheduled meeting, and $3,500 from Kao and Tongour to Wilson.

Budget language that matched company files

The $9.5 million “power and energy” research line Navatek sought was included in the 2020 defence appropriations. FBI agents noted that a paragraph in the Senate committee report was almost identical to text in an internal Navatek spreadsheet written two months earlier. In the House, a Clyburn aide told the company about committee language three days before it was published. Navatek and the University of South Carolina received the contract in July 2020.

Former Navatek staff told ProPublica that the company had no in-house capacity to carry out the research it was pitching.

How the case went dark

In a December 2024 memo, FBI agent Michelle Ball named two former Navatek executives, Duke Hartman and Joshua Knight, and their new company Integer Technologies as formal subjects. The lawmakers were not designated as subjects, but agents were examining their dealings with Kao.

After the change of administration, the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section lost its authority to bring new cases and the prosecutor assigned to the file left. Ball was dismissed in October 2025 and a second agent left in early 2026. According to ProPublica, no one is now examining Kao’s allegations. Hartman and Knight were never charged; Integer has since become a fast-growing Navy research contractor.

The responses

Graham’s former communications director, who now works for his sister and successor Darline Graham, called the allegations “simply false” and “the ravings of a convicted felon”, and said the office was never contacted by the FBI. Clyburn’s office said a donation “would never cause” him to increase his support for a request. Wilson’s office said he has always followed Federal Election Commission rules. Hartman and Knight did not respond. The FBI called Kao’s claims “half baked” and “misleading”.

Questions that remain unanswered

Did any lawmaker’s support depend on campaign money, or did the money follow decisions taken on their merits? How much of Kao’s account did the seized Navatek records corroborate? And with the anti-corruption units disbanded, which authority, if any, will finish examining the file?

Kao is a convicted fraudster whose credibility is disputed. The allegations reported here come from ProPublica’s reporting and from his statements to the FBI. They are not judicial findings, and no lawmaker has been charged.

Based on reporting from: ProPublica · 20 October 2026; ProPublica · Navatek and Susan Collins · September 2026; Reuters · 9 June 2025; US Senate Appropriations Committee · Report 116-103; US House Appropriations Committee · Report 116-84.