PolitiFact also looked into a claim that Jeffery Epstein's "business partner funneled $3 million" to a Collins super PAC.
PolitiFact also looked into a claim that Jeffery Epstein's "business partner funneled $3 million" to a Collins super PAC.
An ad accuses Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, of opposing the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased sex offender at the center of multiple midterm attacks.
Inthe Sept. 24 ad, a woman identified only as “Debbie” says, “As a retired junior high teacher, I’m horrified. Susan Collins voted to cover up the Epstein files. She knew 14-year-old girls were raped.” The ad then shows a photo of Collins next to a photo of President Donald Trump and Epstein.
The ad continues: “Turns out that Jeffrey Epstein’s business partner funneled $3 million” to Collins’ super PAC.
The ad is fromWinSenate, a super political action committee linked to Democrat-affiliated Senate Majority PAC. A super PAC is a political action committee that can spend unlimited amounts of money to campaign for federal candidates. On Nov. 3, Collins will face Democratic candidate Troy Jackson, a former Maine state senator.
The ad misleads about both Collins’ position on releasing the Epstein files and the PAC donor.
The ad cites aSept. 10, 2025, voteon an amendment to a defense authorization bill, directing the attorney general to release Epstein investigative files. Collins joined most of her Republican colleagues voting in favor of a motion to table the amendment, essentially blocking it, which passed 51-49.
The amendment “does not belong on the Department of Defense policy bill,”Collins saidat the time.
However,she saidshe previously supported a similar provision in a funding bill.
A few months earlier, during a July 10, 2025, Senate Appropriations Committeehearingthat Collins chaired, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., proposed anamendmentto a funding bill, directing the attorney general to “retain, preserve and compile” all Epstein files and report the findings to lawmakers within 60 days. The committee unanimously voted in favor.
Thefunding billstalled in the Senate.
But pressure on Congress and Trump to release the files grew. After undermining efforts to release them,Trump that fall directedlawmakers to pass such a measure.
On Nov. 18, 2025, theEpstein Files Transparency Actpassed the House 427-1 and then passed the Senate via unanimous consent.
“This is an important step for the survivors of these heinous crimes,”Collins saidafter the vote.
