FBI Raids Office of Powerful Virginia Senator

Federal agents turned up at a veteran Virginia lawmaker's office on Wednesday, and it wasn't for a courtesy visit. The FBI executed a search warrant at the Portsmouth office of state Sen. Louise Lucas, a top Democrat who has served more than three decades in the Virginia Senate and was central to a recent, contentious redrawing of the state's congressional map, the New York Times reports. Sources tell the Times that the search is part of an ongoing federal probe, begun under the Biden administration, into potential corruption and bribery tied to marijuana dispensaries

Agents also searched a neighboring dispensary and other locations, according to the Times' sources. The FBI's Norfolk field office confirmed only that it was conducting a court-authorized search warrant in Portsmouth, the AP reports. Lucas, known for her blunt social media style, was instrumental in pushing through an unusual mid-decade redistricting plan that could significantly strengthen Democrats' hold on Virginia's 11 House seats. Lucas, chair of the state Senate's Finance and Appropriations Committee, pushed for a map that would give Democrats a 10-1 advantage.

"This is about pushing back on Donald Trump having what I consider unchecked control of the Congress because they don't have backbone enough to push against him," the 82-year-old great-grandmother told CNN last month. "I know a lot of folks really like their members of Congress, but they don't have the backbone to do the job." Earlier this year, when Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, which passed its own redistricting plan, criticized the Virginia plan as an "abuse of power," Lucas fired back on X. "You all started it and we f---ing finished it," she wrote.