The FBI was poised to investigate the late South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rep. James Clyburn before President Donald Trump took office and barred the Justice Department’s anti-corruption section from pursuing new cases.
The department was probing a meeting between Graham and Martin Kao, the chief executive of Navatek, a marine defense research and development company, according to a report from ProPublica published Tuesday. It was also looking into what the investigative nonprofit called an alleged “cash-for-contacts” deal between Navatek and Clyburn, an influential Democratic power broker.
The allegations against Graham stemmed from a 2020 dinner that he agreed to attend for 45 minutes if Kao committed $40,000 in campaign contributions, the outlet reported.
At the meeting, Graham agreed to direct a $10 million government contract toward the company. During the face-to-face, Kao also pledged a total of $100,000 to his reelection campaign, according to ProPublica.
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The FBI opened a bribery investigation in 2025, with Graham’s dinner as a main focal point, the outlet reported. However, the investigation went cold after Trump was sworn in and effectively disbanded the DOJ team handling public corruption.
Kao told federal agents he bribed lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including Clyburn and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina).
The agency did not consider Graham, Clyburn or Wilson subjects of the investigation, but FBI agents indicated they could be subjects in the future, ProPublica reported. Two men the FBI did consider subjects, Navatek executives Duke Hartman and Joshua Knight, were never charged.
Last year, Kao was sentenced to 87 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to a loan fraud scheme in 2022.
A representative for Graham denied the allegations in a statement to ProPublica, calling them the “ravings of a convicted felon” and “simply false.”
A representative for Clyburn also dismissed the story.
“Whatever a donor may think or say, a donation would never cause Congressman Clyburn to increase his support for the donor’s request,” Jami LaRue, Clyburn’s communications director, told ProPublica.
Kao’s business model boiled down to bribing public officials in exchange for contracts, he told the FBI, according to documents reviewed by ProPublica. Kao admitted the research his company provided for the government was “often worthless.”
Kao told ProPublica from prison that what he participated in was “corruption at its best.”
The Washington Sun emailed representatives for Graham, Clyburn and Wilson for comment.
The company first began approaching lawmakers in 2019. The next year, Navatek won $40.7 million in government contracts.
That same year, Wilson, Graham and Clyburn each asked for $100,000. Graham had a more direct approach, said Kao, according to the outlet.
“This is how much I want, and how much I am going to give you,” he recalled the lawmaker saying.
Navatek is no longer doing business under that name. Graham died in July at the age of 71.
Clyburn, 86, announced he’d be seeking reelection in March. Meanwhile, Wilson continues to serve as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee.
The Tuesday report follows an investigation by ProPublica last month that found Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine similarly pushed millions in government funding in Navatek’s direction while Navatek donated to her campaign. Collins denied any allegations of wrongdoing, ProPublica reported, and she called Kao a “convicted liar.”
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