FBI brokers executed a search warrant Wednesday morning on Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas’ private workplace, a marijuana store she co-owns and other locations, in line with a supply acquainted with the probe and information footage of the regulation enforcement actions.
Lucas, a heavy hitter for Democrats within the state and president professional tempore of the Virginia Senate, has not too long ago targeted her consideration on redrawing the state’s congressional maps, which might assist ship her get together extra seats within the upcoming midterm elections.
An FBI spokesperson advised NCS the warrant being executed in Lucas’ hometown of Portsmouth was signed by a federal decide however wouldn’t touch upon the goal or scope of the investigation.
NCS has reached out to Lucas for remark. Lucas advised Fox News: “I don’t know what’s going on.”
An individual near the state senator advised NCS that federal brokers had been there when she arrived within the parking zone exterior of her workplace, and so they seized electronics and other objects.
At least one marijuana dispensary, a store close to the senator’s workplace that she co-owns, was raided in connection with the search warrant.
Lucas, 82, has been an advocate of legalizing marijuana and has proposed utilizing tax income from marijuana gross sales to assist cowl federal spending cuts which have affected Virginia beneath the Trump administration.
In a press release to NCS, a spokesperson for Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger acknowledged the raids however wouldn’t remark additional.
“The Governor is aware of today’s law enforcement operation in Portsmouth,” the spokesperson stated, ” In the absence of extra particulars, the Governor won’t be commenting on a federal investigation right now.”
Don Scott, speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, stated in a press release that “people should take this with a grain of salt and allow the facts to come out before jumping to conclusions” given the “politicization of this administration.”
US Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat, famous in a press release that the searches come two weeks after Lucas led the profitable redistricting effort.
“While we await the full facts of the investigation, it must be acknowledged that this FBI raid occurs in the broader context of President Trump’s repeated abuse of the Department of Justice to target his perceived political opponents,” Scott stated within the assertion.
Following her redistricting victory, Lucas took to social media to troll President Donald Trump in a sequence of posts, together with one by which she’s sporting boxing gloves.