Lengthy earlier than Donald J. Trump upended the Republican Occasion, Scott Reed was considered one of its go-to political operatives. He labored on presidential campaigns, ran the Republican Nationwide Committee and suggested the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, forging mutually helpful connections throughout Washington’s political institution.
Considered one of his closest relationships was with Senator Susan Collins of Maine, and her husband, Tom Daffron, a former Capitol Hill staffer and lobbyist. Mr. Daffron beforehand labored at Mr. Reed’s authorities relations agency, and final 12 months it paid him for consulting, in keeping with the senator’s monetary disclosure. Mr. Reed has additionally raised thousands and thousands of {dollars} to assist Ms. Collins beat again challengers in a Democratic-leaning state and preserve her coveted standing as one of the senior Republicans within the Senate.
The longstanding ties between Mr. Reed and the senator and her husband are actually beneath intense scrutiny following a report by ProPublica that stated the F.B.I. had sought to start a pay-to-play investigation inspecting Ms. Collins’s interactions with a donor searching for federal contracts. Mr. Reed, who headed a pro-Collins tremendous PAC, exchanged emails with the donor, Martin Kao, in keeping with ProPublica.
The New York Instances confirmed that the F.B.I., beneath the Biden administration, had begun investigating Mr. Kao’s allegations that he and Mr. Reed had mentioned circumventing marketing campaign finance legal guidelines. Underneath the Trump administration, F.B.I. officers skeptical of his claims shut down the inquiry final 12 months, The Instances reported.
Media protection of the F.B.I. inquiry arrives at a fraught second for Ms. Collins, who’s at the moment within the throes of one of many tightest Senate races within the nation, one which each events see as pivotal to regulate of the chamber. She known as the ProPublica article “really outrageous” and attacked the credibility of Mr. Kao, who’s serving an 87-month sentence in federal jail for financial institution fraud and different fees.
Chatting with reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Ms. Collins described Mr. Reed as “an individual of nice integrity.”
Mr. Reed, 66, stated he by no means communicated with Ms. Collins, her workers or Mr. Daffron about Mr. Kao or his firm. On Wednesday, he additionally instructed The Instances that he would proceed to boost cash for a lately launched tremendous PAC supporting Ms. Collins, Pine Tree Outcomes. The group has spent or reserved $28 million on promoting this marketing campaign cycle, in keeping with AdImpact.
Ms. Collins’s Democratic rival, Troy Jackson, is seizing on the allegations specified by the ProPublica article as he seeks to tug forward within the six weeks earlier than the November election.
“The jig is up,” he stated in a video on social media. “What Susan Collins simply obtained caught doing is corruption of the very best order.”
Ms. Collins, Mr. Daffron and Mr. Reed all have been fixtures within the Republican institution for many years, representing the standard, extra reasonable wing of the occasion unwelcome in Mr. Trump’s MAGA motion.
The 2 males first obtained to know one another throughout President Ronald Reagan’s re-election marketing campaign in 1984, Mr. Reed stated. A decade later, Mr. Reed met Ms. Collins when she ran, unsuccessfully, for governor of Maine and he was government director of the Republican Nationwide Committee, serving to the occasion sweep Congress in 1994.
Mr. Reed went on to handle Bob Dole’s presidential marketing campaign in 1996. Mr. Daffron led the unsuccessful bid by Mr. Dole’s spouse, Elizabeth Dole, for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. When Mr. Daffron joined Mr. Reed’s lobbying store, Chesapeake Enterprises, in 2001, Mr. Reed quipped to The Washington Put up: “It’ll be one-stop purchasing for any Dole memorabilia.”
By then, Ms. Collins was serving her first time period within the Senate. Mr. Daffron labored as an government vice chairman at Chesapeake Enterprises till 2004, in keeping with Legistorm, which supplies details about Capitol Hill.
As Ms. Collins gained seniority within the Senate, Mr. Reed served because the chief political adviser to the highly effective U.S. Chamber of Commerce, serving as one of many main voices for company America and steering its congressional endorsements.
“The chamber’s affect vastly elevated by having Scott round,” stated Charlie Black, a longtime Republican marketing consultant who has identified Mr. Reed for the reason that Nineteen Eighties. “He knew the political panorama and he knew all people in Washington.”
In 2020, Mr. Reed abruptly left the chamber, citing its endorsements of a number of Democrats and claiming the group was insufficiently defending the Republican majority within the Senate. A spokeswoman for the group on the time stated Mr. Reed had been pushed out “for trigger” and accused him of breaching the group’s confidentiality guidelines.
That very same 12 months, Mr. Reed leveraged his huge political community to bankroll an excellent PAC boosting Ms. Collins’s re-election marketing campaign. After she gained a tricky race in opposition to Sara Gideon, the Democratic candidate, Mr. Reed touted Ms. Collins’s refusal to endorse President Trump’s bid for a second time period, saying it “strengthened Susan’s independence, that she’s above occasion politics, that she’s for Maine.”
Two years later, Mr. Kao was indicted on fees of constructing unlawful marketing campaign contributions, and he started to element a sweeping cash-for-contracts operation on Capitol Hill that concerned Ms. Collins and Mr. Reed, in keeping with the ProPublica report. He instructed federal investigators that Mr. Reed had requested executives of his firm for a donation, which he stated he was prepared to provide in change for multimillion-dollar protection contracts. As an finish run across the legislation that bans direct contributions by federal contractors, Mr. Kao created a shell firm that directed $150,000 to the tremendous PAC led by Mr. Reed, in keeping with ProPublica.
Mr. Reed dismissed his account, saying, “I perceive Mr. Kao is now sitting in federal jail.”
Mr. Reed’s profile in Washington has dimmed lately, although lobbying data present he nonetheless represents a number of shoppers on Capitol Hill, together with American Airways and Hillwood Investments, an actual property firm based mostly in Dallas.
“He’s not a Trumper, so I don’t hear his identify as a lot anymore,” stated Rick Hohlt, a veteran Capitol Hill lobbyist. “He was an enormous deal for a very long time.”
Mr. Reed has remained near Ms. Collins and Mr. Daffron. “It’s not an uncommon political relationship in Washington, and it’s additionally a private friendship,” Mr. Black stated.
Mr. Reed’s agency, Chesapeake Enterprises, paid Mr. Daffron greater than $1,000 final 12 months, in keeping with the senator’s monetary disclosure kind. He stated that Mr. Daffron, who has served as a chief of workers for 3 U.S. senators, “has data of the best way the U.S. Capitol works second to none.” He continued, “He often helps me information a few of our shoppers — and by no means lobbies.”
Mr. Daffron didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Mr. Reed’s Pine Tree Outcomes tremendous PAC has raised $20.6 million as of the tip of June, data present, largely from out-of-state megadonors. In late July, when Mr. Jackson secured the Democratic nomination, Mr. Reed warned him that he was in for a battle, saying, “We plan to welcome Jackson to the N.F.L. shortly.”
The tremendous PAC has subsequently aired a minimum of 5 adverts attacking Mr. Jackson’s character and his document as a Maine legislator.