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The investigation into Democratic Senator L. Louise Lucas was initiated during the tenure of former President Joe Biden’s administration, according to a source familiar with the matter. Both sources, who requested anonymity due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, confirmed this detail.
Although the investigation has navigated through different political administrations, Democrats view it in the context of previous politically charged inquiries during President Donald Trump’s presidency. Lucas, a veteran senator with 34 years of service, played a key role in Virginia’s recent redistricting efforts, a Democrat-led initiative aimed at counteracting Republican redistricting strategies promoted under Trump.
In a statement released in the evening, Lucas asserted, “Today’s actions by federal agents extend beyond the issue of one state senator; they touch on themes of power and who is permitted to wield it for the people.” She further criticized the administration, saying, “What we witnessed aligns with a clear pattern: when faced with opposition, they resort to intimidation and silence those who defy them.”
The FBI has confirmed that it was conducting a court-authorized search in Portsmouth. Such operations require judicial approval, along with investigators presenting probable cause for a crime to be investigated.
The search extended to Lucas’ office, which accommodates her disabilities services enterprise and serves as her political headquarters in Portsmouth. FBI agents, identifiable by their T-shirts, also visited a nearby cannabis store she established in 2021. The entrances to the Cannabis Outlet’s parking area, as well as access to the politician’s office, were blocked by unmarked vehicles with flashing blue lights.
By evening, agents were carrying boxes and bags out of the shop’s back door.
Lucas, a prominent backer of legalizing marijuana, has said the store sells legal hemp and CBD products. It has drawn scrutiny from local media amid allegations that some products were mislabeled.
Virginia has legalized pot possession, but retail sales of recreational marijuana remain illegal in the state.
A woman who identified herself as Lucas’ granddaughter, Nicole Bremby, came by after agents left to check on the Cannabis Outlet. She declined to discuss the raids.
“I’ve had better days,” she said. “It’s all good. Everyone is home.”
Virginia Democrats point to other recent prosecutions
State House Speaker Don Scott said he was deeply concerned by the FBI search.
“Right now, there is far more theatrics and speculation than actual information available to the public,” Scott, a Democrat, said in a statement, adding that more facts were needed “before anyone rushes to political conclusions.”
Gov. Abigail Spanberger declined to comment.
Other Virginia Democrats were quick to note that the search comes as the FBI and Justice Department have opened a spate of investigations into perceived adversaries of Trump.
Last week the Justice Department charged former FBI Director James Comey with making a threatening Instagram post against Trump, an accusation that Comey — who for nearly a decade has drawn the president’s ire — has denied. A court dismissed federal prosecutors’ earlier case accusing Comey of lying to Congress.
A separate mortgage fraud case, also ultimately dismissed by a court, targeted Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a major civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his business. Both she and Comey, a longtime Republican who split from the party in the past decade, denied the charges and said the prosecutions were vindictive.
Such cases “have undermined public confidence” in federal prosecutors in Virginia, Democratic state Attorney General Jay Jones said in a statement.
The FBI and Justice Department have also provoked concerns among Democrats about ongoing election-related investigations, including the seizure by agents of ballots and other information from Fulton County, Georgia.
Lucas has been a vocal leader of Virginia’s redistricting effort, which voters approved last month. A sign urging people to “vote yes” to “stop the MAGA power grab” still hung Wednesday on a fence separating her office’s parking lot from that of the cannabis shop.
Lucas played a leading role in Virginia redistricting
Amid a national, state-by-state partisan redistricting fight kicked off by Trump’s desire to aid his fellow Republicans, Virginia voters OK’d a Democrat-backed constitutional amendment authorizing new U.S. House districts. The plan could help the party win up to four additional seats.
“We are not going to let anyone tilt the system without a response,” Lucas said after the vote. Trump, meanwhile, denounced the results.
The state Supreme Court let the referendum proceed but has yet to rule on whether the effort is legal. The court is considering an appeal of a lower court judge’s ruling that the amendment is invalid because lawmakers violated procedural requirements.
Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But Trump last year urged Texas Republicans to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. California Democrats reciprocated, and redistricting efforts soon cascaded across states.
Lucas, 82, has been a figure in Virginia politics since the 1980s, when she became the first Black woman elected to a city council seat in her native Portsmouth. She now is the first woman and first African American to serve as the Senate’s president pro tempore.
Earlier in life she was the Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s first female shipfitter, according to her biography in the state library. The job entails making, installing and repairing sometimes enormous metal assemblies for vessels.
In recent years she has been the CEO of a Portsmouth business that runs residences, day programs and transportation for intellectually disabled adults.
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