Judge concludes Trump’s White House media ban hearing with no ruling

(WASHINGTON) — Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins is vehemently denying a ProPublica report out earlier this week that says the FBI targeted her in a corruption probe, saying “it’s clearly a political hit job.”

The ProPublica report said that a Republican consultant asked defense firm Navatek and its former CEO Martin Kao for big donations to her campaign in exchange for millions in federal contracts. In 2024, the FBI sought to launch an investigation into Collins and the donor, but when President Donald Trump returned to office for his second term, the investigation died after he made cuts to the FBI, the report stated.

ABC News has not independently confirmed the reporting by ProPublica. Kao did not speak with ProPublica for its story.

“The Biden Justice Department found that there was no wrongdoing by any one of my campaign staff, my office, or me,” the five-term Maine senator said on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. “This is absolutely outrageous. It’s clearly a political hit job.”

Annie Clark, Collins’ deputy chief of staff, said that the Biden administration, FBI and Department of Justice had “thoroughly investigated the Navatek matter.”

“The Collins campaign cooperated fully with the FBI throughout the investigation, producing all of the documents it requested and serving as fact witnesses in official settings,” Clark said in a statement on social media, adding that these “issues were resolved in 2021, and the FBI has not contacted us about Martin Kao since then.”

FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson told ProPublica that the agency had investigated the claims against Collins years ago “and ultimately found nothing implicating Senator Collins or Senator Collins’ campaign. Any suggestion otherwise is totally false.”

Williamson did not respond to ProPublica’s questions about the alleged new, separate investigation launched in 2024.

Collins — who is running for reelection in the closely watched Maine Senate race, which could determine the balance of power in the upper chamber — said “it’s very frustrating and unfair to have it brought up this close to the election.”

Collins maintained that she learned the company was doing 3D printing research to build boats and were awarded the defense contracts because the Navy found its developments to be “valuable.”

“I’m telling you that this is completely false,” Collins said Tuesday of the ProPublica report’s allegations.

Clark on Tuesday also called the allegations in the report “categorically false.”

“The seven-year-old allegations made against Senator Collins and her staff in this piece are categorically false. There have never been any allegations of wrongdoing by the Collins for Senator campaign, and the campaign was never the target of the FBI investigation,” Clark wrote in a statement on social media.

Collins’ campaign manager, Steve Abbott, responded to the report and called the allegations false and outrageous.

“Not only false. I would say outrageous,” Abbott said.

Collins’ opponent in the Maine Senate race, Democratic candidate Troy Jackson, reacted to the report, saying “the jig is up.”

“This is corruption of the highest order,” Jackson wrote in a statement on Tuesday.

Asked for comment, PacMar Technologies — formerly known as Navatek — told ABC News that it’s “a victim.”

“The point here is that PacMar is a victim, like others, of Martin Kao’s illegal conduct and we have dedicated great time and expense in prosecuting Martin Kao and his cabal for their damage to our former company’s good name and reputation,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement.

Trump has not commented on the ProPublica report.

ABC News’ Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.

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(BEIJING, China) — Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a warning to President Donald Trump during their high-stakes summit in Beijing, saying that if the issue of Taiwan is handled “improperly,” the two nations could “come into conflict,” according to China’s official state broadcaster Xinhua.

The trip came at a crucial time for Trump as the war with Iran loomed and was leading to economic consequences for Americans at home. China is Iran’s principal oil consumer.

Particularly thorny for China is the issue of Taiwan and the U.S. position on the matter has long been delicate.

However, Xi did say that if the issue is handled “properly,” “bilateral relations can remain generally stable.”

After a dramatic welcoming ceremony, Trump sat down with Xi on the first day of a multi-day summit, during which Trump said he’d seek to deepen diplomatic and economic ties between the world’s two largest economic powers.

Trump and Xi had a “good meeting,” according to a White House official, but the official readout has no mention of Taiwan — which Xi earlier warned of a “conflict” if the issue was handled improperly.

Iran was also discussed between the leaders, with both sides agreeing that the Strait of Hormuz should remain open. This is a position China has already held.

“The two sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to support the free flow of energy. President Xi also made clear China’s opposition to the militarization of the Strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use, and he expressed interest in purchasing more American oil to reduce China’s dependence on the Strait in the future. Both countries agreed that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”

The meeting also covered investments, economic cooperation, fentanyl and increasing Chinese purchases of American farm products.

The bilateral meeting between the two leaders in the Great Hall of the People lasted about 2 hours and 15 minutes, according to pool reporters traveling with the president.

Ahead of the meeting, after Trump and a slate of other U.S. officials had gathered around the negotiating table, Trump called Xi a “great leader” and touted their relationship.

“Such respect for China, the job you’ve done. You’re a great leader. I say it to everybody. You’re a great leader,” Trump said. “Sometimes people don’t like me saying it, but I say it anyway, because it’s true. I always say the truth.”

“We’ve had a fantastic relationship. We’ve gotten along,” Trump said. “When there were difficulties, we worked it out. I would call you, and you would call me, and whenever we had a problem — people don’t know — whenever we had a problem, we worked it out very quickly, and we’re going to have a fantastic future together.”

In his opening remarks, Xi told Trump that China and the U.S. “both stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation.”

“We should be partners, not rivals, “he continued. “We should help each other succeed and prosper together and find the right way for major countries to get along well with each other in the new era.”

According to a bulletin from Xinhua, Xi emphasized that the issue of Taiwan is “the most important issue in China-U.S. relations,” saying if they are “if handled improperly, the two countries will clash or even come into conflict, pushing the entire China-U.S. relationship into a very dangerous situation.”

Ahead of the visit, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News that the U.S. will urge China to take a more assertive role in resolving the U.S.’s war with Iran during Trump’s meeting with Xi.

“It’s in their interest to resolve this. We hope to convince them to play a more active role in getting Iran to walk away from what they’re doing now and trying to do now in the Persian Gulf,” Rubio said during an interview taped on Air Force One Tuesday while Rubio and Trump were on their way to Beijing.

“We’ve made clear to them, you know, that any support for Iran would obviously be detrimental for our relationship. That obviously is going to come up in this conversation,” Rubio said.

Ahead of the state dinner, Trump was asked whether the pair would discuss diplomatic ways to end the war with Iran, which is in its third month. China is a key buyer of Iranian oil, which could give it considerable diplomatic leverage over Tehran, experts told ABC News. Trump said the U.S. had Iran “very much under control,” adding that it would be among the topics discussed.

“We’re either going to make a deal or they’re going to be decimated, one way or the other. We win,” Trump said. “We’re going to be talking about, we’re going to be talking with President Xi.”

In remarks at the Great Hall this morning, President Trump delivered a history lesson of the “special” US-China relationship, while thanking his “friend” President Xi for a “magnificent welcome like none other.”

Trump called this a “historic visit” that resulted in “extremely positive and productive conversations,” even extending an invite for Xi to visit the U.S on Sept. 24.

The last time Xi visited the White House was in September 2015 when former President Obama hosted him for a State Visit. The visit will be one of four meetings that the leaders wanted to have this year as part of their agreement last fall that put a pause on the tit-for-tat tariff war last year.

Trump said on social media on Tuesday that he planned to ask Xi to “open up” the Chinese economy. The U.S. delegation includes Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. CEOs Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, Tim Cook of Apple and Jensen Huang of NVIDIA as well as the president’s son Eric Trump and daughter-in-law Lara Trump were also present.

Trump said the business leaders joined him to “pay respects” to Xi.

“We asked the top 30 in the world. Every single one of them said ‘yes,’ and I didn’t want the second or the third in the company. I wanted only the top. And they’re here today to pay respects to you and to China, and they look forward to trade and doing business, and it’s going to be totally reciprocal on our behalf,” Trump said.

The White House said one of Trump’s goals going into the summit with Xi is to secure purchasing agreements with China in the aerospace, agriculture and energy sectors and the CEOs traveled with the president to help push for that.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, said that the scheduled diplomatic meetings were expected to play “an irreplaceable role in providing strategic guidance for China-U.S. relations.”

“During the visit, the two heads of state will have an in-depth exchange of views on major issues concerning China-U.S. relations and world peace and development,” Guo added, according to a transcript published by the ministry. “China stands ready to work with the U.S. to expand cooperation and manage differences in the spirit of equality, respect and mutual benefit, and provide more stability and certainty for a transforming and volatile world.”

ABC News’ Mariam Khan and Fritz Farrow contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — A three-judge panel in a federal court in Alabama ruled unanimously on Tuesday that state Republicans are still blocked from using their 2023 congressional map, which would have potentially helped Republicans in November.

Alabama had moved forward with using the 2023 map after state lawmakers had said the Supreme Court’s historic decision in Louisiana v. Callais in late April cleared the way for it.

The judges, including two appointed by President Donald Trump, concluded that the high court’s recent ruling on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has no bearing on this case, in which lower courts found the 2023 map represents a constitutional violation.

“Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the judges wrote in their ruling.

In 2024, Alabama had been required to use a map with two majority-Black districts, one of which was won by Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures. But in the wake of the Supreme Court decision, some state lawmakers and the governor delayed some of Alabama’s House elections, although others were held on May 19 as scheduled.

As of now, Alabama must move forward with the 2024 map, unless, the court noted on Tuesday, lawmakers want to attempt to enact a new congressional district plan at this late hour, which it is free to do. 

Figures, in a statement to ABC News, said that he also expected further legal battles. The 2023 map was expected to potentially help Republicans flip Figures’ seat in November. 

“I am pleased with the Court’s decision, but this case is still not over,” Figures said. “Although we expected the Court to reach this decision given the overwhelming evidence, we fully expect the State to immediately appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. This is a significant step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go before this fight is settled.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said he is “disappointed” by the decision and said there will be an appeal effort.

“I am disappointed, but not at all surprised, that the three-judge panel has again struck down Alabama’s blandly unobjectionable congressional map that has been in place for decades. I find nothing in the U.S. Supreme Court’s vacatur order of May 11 that would provide a basis for this outcome; thus, we will immediately appeal this decision to the Supreme Court,” Marshall said in a statement.

“This is a very fluid situation, and I will do my best to keep the People of Alabama apprised of our efforts. Know this—in my mind, it is not a matter of whether we win this case, only when.”

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