FBI Raids Virginia Senate Leader’s Office in Corruption Probe

The FBI raided the office of the Virginia Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas, a Democrat, as part of a corruption investigation, Fox 5 D.C. reported.

She is the top official in the state Senate. Lucas is a leader in the state Democrats’ redistricting push.

FBI agents are searching a nearby cannabis dispensary as part of the probe. Fox 5 says law enforcement hasn’t disclosed the reason for the investigation.

A federal judge approved multiple search warrants for the FBI raid, Fox 5 reported.

Lucas, 82, first assumed office in the state Senate in 1992, and became the Senate president pro tempore in 2020.

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This is not her first legal dust up. 

In June 2020, Lucas attended a protest against Confederate monuments in Portsmouth, Virginia, where she told officers they could not arrest protestors who were planning to deface a Confederate monument. After she left, protestors pulled the monument down, which injured one person. The following August, the Portsmouth Police Department charged Lucas with conspiracy to commit a felony and injury to a monument causing more than $1,000 in damage. 

The Washington Post reported Lucas said the charges are were “a political stunt meant to weaponize the criminal justice system against African Americans.” That November, a Virginia judge dismissed the charges. 

Virginia House Speaker Don Scott, a Democrat, issued a statement Wednesday published in several outlets that attacked the Trump administration for the raid. 

“Lets start with this: Senator L. Louise Lucas has not been charged with anything! I am deeply concerned by today’s FBI raid,” Scott said. “Given the politicization of this administration — an FBI led by Kash Patel and a Justice Department run by President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney — I think people should take this with a grain of salt and allow the facts to come out before jumping to conclusions. At this point we simply do not know what this ultimately means. Right now, there is far more theatrics and speculation than actual information available to the public.”

The speaker also asked about how Fox News was first to report the raid. 

“It also raises important questions. How was Fox News, a national media outlet, first on the scene? Did they know about the raid beforehand?” Scott said. “If so, who approved that? And what more information is there about what this raid was actually about? Virginians deserve answers before anyone rushes to political conclusions.”

Lucas has been a vocal supporter of state Democrats’ push to pass a referendum overhauling the congressional map. Under the new map, only one district would be considered a Republican seat.

“We are leveling the playing field,” she said in February. “Our maps are ready. Virginia is ready. We said ’10-1,’ and we meant it.”

In February, she responded to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who called the Virginia redistricting effort a “brazen abuse of power & an insult to democracy.” 

“You all started it, and we f—— finished it,” Lucas wrote on X.

In October, when then-candidate for attorney general Jay Jones faced backlash for past texts in which he wished for the shooting of then-Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Todd Gilbert—and for the killing of Gilbert’s two young children—Lucas called the texts “deeply disturbing” but wouldn’t call for Jones to withdraw from the race.

“There is no place for political violence or violent rhetoric in our public discourse,” Lucas said in a joint statement with state Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, adding, “Jay must take accountability for his actions. But we will not allow this moment to distract from the urgent fight we are in for Virginia’s future.”

This story is developing and may be updated.