WinSenate's $32 Million Epstein Ad Says Collins 'Covered Up' the Files. Her Own Vote Record Says Otherwise.

The actual timeline cuts against the ad's framing. In July 2025, the Senate Appropriations Committee — which Collins chairs — unanimously voted to direct the Justice Department to "retain, preserve and compile" the Epstein files and report findings within 60 days ^[1][3].

In September 2025, Collins did vote with most Republicans to table a Democratic amendment to a defense authorization bill that would have forced release of the files, arguing the measure "does not belong on the Department of Defense policy bill" ^[1][2]. That procedural vote is the sole basis for the ad's "cover-up" claim.

Two months later, in November 2025, the Senate unanimously passed the standalone Epstein Files Transparency Act — with Collins' support. She called it "an important step for the survivors of these heinous crimes" ^[1][2][3]. A senator who later votes unanimously for full disclosure is not the senator a 'cover-up' ad describes.

The $3 million figure is real: Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman gave that amount to Pine Tree Results PAC, the main pro-Collins outside group ^[1][2][3]. What's not real is the "business partner" label. Schwarzman and Epstein were both among roughly 100 founding members who paid $100,000 each to help launch New York's exclusive Core Club in 2005 ^[1][2][3] — shared membership in a social club, not a business relationship.

PolitiFact found no evidence the two men ever interacted, let alone partnered on anything ^[1]. A Blackstone spokesperson told the outlet it would be "categorically false and reckless to claim or imply that Steve had any relationship with this despicable individual" ^[1].

PolitiFact rated the ad's central claims False ^[1]. Collins' committee chairmanship pushed for preservation of the files; her single procedural vote to table a different bill's amendment was followed by an unqualified vote for disclosure; and the donor tie to Epstein rests on a shared country-club membership, not a business partnership. Independent fact-checks from the Bangor Daily News and Maine Monitor reached the same conclusion ^[2][3].

This is a genuine vote on Collins' record stretched past what the record supports — a familiar pattern in high-dollar midterm advertising where a real procedural vote gets relabeled with the most damning word available.