PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) 鈥� The FBI searched the Virginia state Senate leader’s office on Wednesday as part of a corruption investigation, a person familiar with the matter said. Federal agents also were seen at the senator’s nearby cannabis business.
The search at Virginia Sen. L. Louise Lucas鈥檚 district office in Portsmouth comes after the Democrat helped lead effort.
The FBI said only that it was conducting a court-authorized search warrant in Portsmouth. The person who confirmed the FBI鈥檚 search was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Besides the search at Lucas’ office, agents in FBI T-shirts also went into the nearby Cannabis Outlet, which she opened in 2021. Several entrances to the store’s parking lot were blocked by unmarked vehicles with flashing blue lights, as was an entrance to the politician’s office.
Lucas 鈥� a 鈥� has said the store sells legal hemp and CBD products. It has from local media amid allegations that some products were mislabeled.
Virginia has , but retail sales of recreational marijuana remain illegal in the state.
A message seeking comment was left Wednesday on a cellphone for Lucas, who has been a state senator for 34 years.
State House Speaker Don Scott said he was deeply concerned by the FBI search.
鈥淩ight now, there is far more theatrics and speculation than actual information available to the public,鈥� Scott, a Democrat, said in a statement, adding that more facts were needed 鈥渂efore anyone rushes to political conclusions.鈥�
Gov. Abigail Spanberger declined to comment. Some other Virginia Democrats were quick to note that the search comes as the FBI and Justice Department have opened a spate of politically charged investigations into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump.
Last week, the Justice Department with making a threatening Instagram post against Trump, an accusation that Comey 鈥� who for nearly a decade has drawn the president鈥檚 ire 鈥� has denied. A court federal prosecutors’ earlier case accusing Comey of lying to Congress.
A separate mortgage fraud case, also ultimately by a court, targeted Democratic New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who had brought a major against Trump and his business. Both she and Comey, a Republican-turned-independent, denied the charges and said the prosecutions were vindictive.
Such cases 鈥渉ave undermined public confidence鈥� in federal prosecutors in Virginia, state Attorney General Jay Jones, a Democrat, said in a statement.
The FBI and Justice Department have also provoked concerns among Democrats about ongoing election-related investigations, including the and other information from Fulton County, Georgia.
Lucas has been a vocal leader of Virginia’s redistricting effort, which voters last month. A sign urging people to 鈥渧ote yes鈥� to 鈥渟top the MAGA power grab鈥� still hung Wednesday on a fence separating her office’s parking lot from the parking for the cannabis shop.
Amid a national, state-by-state partisan kicked off by Trump鈥檚 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.
鈥淲e are not going to let anyone tilt the system without a response,鈥� Lucas said after the vote. Trump, meanwhile, denounced the results.
let the referendum proceed, but has yet to rule whether the effort is legal. The court is considering an appeal of a lower court judge鈥檚 ruling that because lawmakers violated procedural requirements.
Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But Trump last year 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 body鈥檚 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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Associated Press writers Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky; Jake Offenhartz in New York; and Claudia Lauder in Philadelphia contributed.
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