The FBI acts on more than 2,000 search warrants every year. So why was the one that federal agents executed Wednesday in Portsmouth so different that it drew national attention?
It’s not just because agents raided the office and business of a politician. It’s because that particular politician is arguably the most powerful political figure in Virginia — one who lately has had a national impact. Here’s a quick summary of what to know about the “law enforcement action” conducted at the office and business of state Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth.
1. Lucas is our most powerful state legislator
That power often comes attached to the position Lucas occupies: chair of the Senate Finance Committee, which deals with the state budget. Previous holders of that chair, Hunter Andrews and Ed Willey, were regarded as fearsome in their days. Lucas has channeled their power and hasn’t been afraid to use it. Depending on the situation, on some days she might be more powerful than the governor — no matter who the governor is. She single-handedly killed former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposal to build a sports arena in Alexandria for the NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals; she simply didn’t call the measure up for a vote. The arrival of a Democratic governor hasn’t changed Lucas one bit; she’s often trolled Abigail Spanberger online for actions Lucas didn’t like.
Lucas is also the one most responsible for Virginia not having a 2026-27 budget yet. She’s been vocal that Virginia needs to eliminate its tax abatements for data centers; they’re scheduled to expire in 2035. She wants them gone next year. That’s put her at odds with the governor and business groups who worry that changing the rules will hurt Virginia’s reputation as a place to do business. Secretary of Finance Mark Sickles has also warned that eliminating these tax incentives will endanger a data center project slated for Pittsylvania County that would bring more than 2,000 jobs to that Southside county.
2. Lucas is the architect of Virginia’s congressional redistricting
Lucas was the one who started pushing for Virginia to redraw its congressional lines in time for the November midterms — and then pushed for the maximalist approach to create a map that would knock out four of the state’s five Republican House members. Spanberger has gotten blamed for redistricting because she said last summer she didn’t have plans to redraw lines. That’s likely true — she didn’t. But Lucas did. And Lucas is the one who has called the shots on that. Lucas isn’t all-powerful; she apparently didn’t get the exact map she wanted, but she got the numbers she was shooting for: a 10-1 map versus the current delegation of six Democrats and five Republicans.
Until Florida this week redrew its congressional lines, Virginia’s referendum (which is still pending before the state Supreme Court) temporarily gave Democrats a national advantage in the redistricting wars. Lucas’ prominence with redistricting has given rise to suspicions that this investigation is politically motivated — Trump administration payback. That’s exactly how the events were portrayed in some quarters nationally. “Trump’s FBI raids office of Virginia redistricting champion Louise Lucas,” headlined Democracy Docket’s evening newsletter. “It looks like the latest example of the Trump administration targeting its political opponents,” the site wrote. Is that really true, though?
3. The investigation apparently started under the Biden administration
The New York Times reports that “two people familiar with the case said the search was related to an investigation opened during the Biden administration that has continued, examining possible corruption and bribery related to marijuana dispensary businesses.” If that’s so, that would undermine the payback theory, but those suspicions show how little trust there is these days in almost anything government-related, no matter who is running the government.
It doesn’t help that Fox News just happened to be on the scene in Portsmouth, apparently tipped that the raid was going to happen. If someone with the FBI was the tipster, that was a short-sighted miscalculation because it only raises the suspicions that this investigation has a political motive, even if it may not.
4. Virginia political leaders had three types of reactions
Republicans were absolutely silent and wanted to say nothing. This is politically wise on their part; it also shows the sensitivities involved here. Democrats generally fell into two camps: those who had little to say and those who raised suspicions.
Spanberger was in the former group. Her office issued this statement: “The Governor is aware of today’s law enforcement operation in Portsmouth. In the absence of additional details, the Governor will not be commenting on a federal investigation at this time.”
Attorney General Jay Jones, a fellow Democrat, had only a smidge more to say: “We simply do not have sufficient information about the reported FBI activity in Portsmouth. However, several previous actions of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia have undermined public confidence in that office. These include the failed prosecutions against President Trump’s stated political enemies, former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James that were both dismissed by a judge well before trial. I urge everyone to exercise restraint in judgment until the relevant facts are known in this matter.”
Speaker of the House Don Scott, a fellow Portsmouth Democrat, and Rep. Bobby Scott, the Democrat who represents Portsmouth in Congress, were more loquacious.
Speaker Scott: “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. … Right now, there is far more theatrics and speculation than actual information available to the public. It also raises important questions. How was Fox News, a national media outlet, first on the scene? Did they know about the raid beforehand? If so, who approved that? And what more information is there about what this raid was actually about?”
Rep. Scott: “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. It should be noted that this is occurring just two weeks after Senator Lucas helped lead the successful effort by Virginia voters to reject President Trump’s attempt to rig the midterm elections. This raid on Senator Lucas’ office and businesses also comes as President Trump has pressured the Department of Justice to pursue investigations and prosecutions against New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI Director James Comey, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, and multiple Democratic Members of Congress.”
Yet another Scott, this one Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax County: “Senator L. Louise Lucas is an outspoken and historic figure in Virginia politics and has not been charged with a single crime. President Trump has made clear that he intends to target the Commonwealth of Virginia for voting against him in 2024 and has already obliterated the Department of Justice’s historical independence to attack our state and his enemies as demonstrated by the legal war against the University of Virginia, George Mason University, and prosecutions against Leticia James, James Comey and sandwich throwers. The firing of Todd Gilbert [as interim U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia] and replacement [of the Eastern District U.S. Attorney] with an unqualified U.S. Attorney like Lindsay Halligan should have been a a warning sign. Now that the judges removed her and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia has been purged of its career staff, every Virginian should be very worried about the rule of law and how it will be applied in this Country and our Commonwealth.”
5. This case calls attention to unprecedented turnover in U.S. attorneys’ offices
Trump has undermined his Justice Department’s credibility by repeatedly trying to get federal prosecutors to pursue his critics. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia has been at the center of that. Erik Siebert, then the interim U.S. attorney for that district, resigned rather than bring those cases. Trump eventually installed his personal attorney, Lindsey Halligan, even though she had no prosecutorial experience. A federal judge eventually ruled that her appointment was invalid. There are limits as to how many interim appointments a president can make — the goal is to have a U.S. attorney nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Trump has now run through his allotted appointments in both federal districts in Virginia. By law, that means the judges can appoint an acting U.S. attorney. When the judges in the Eastern District did so, the Trump administration promptly fired that pick.
Trump is basically trying to make an end-run around the constitutional goal of having Senate-confirmed federal prosecutors. This is where all that comes back to bite him: Public confidence in the case would be higher if these prosecutorial positions hadn’t become so politicized.
6. This case also calls attention to the unusual legal status of cannabis
While we don’t know exactly what the case is about, the fact that agents raided a cannabis business that Lucas is connected with highlights that there are such things as cannabis businesses — and their legal status is complicated. Some things are legal, some aren’t. Very little is regulated. A bill to legalize retail sales of cannabis in Virginia now sits on the governor’s desk. She had sent it back to the legislature with amendments, which the legislature rejected. Now it’s back to Spanberger, who has the option to sign a bill she wasn’t completely happy with, or veto the bill — and wait to get what she thinks would be a better one later.
Society is moving toward acceptance of what we used to call marijuana; Trump recently moved to reschedule cannabis at the federal level to a lower level of controlled substances. None of that may be at play here, but to the extent that the raid puts “cannabis business” in the news, it’s worth talking about what a gray area the green leaf exists in. It also shows some of the political pressure on the governor: She clearly has concerns with some of the technicalities of the legislation, but if she vetoes it entirely, she’ll run afoul of a lot of fellow Democrats — including one named Louise Lucas.
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