NORFOLK, Va. – Federal authorities on Thursday charged a prominent Virginia Democrat with racketeering and money laundering conspiracy as part of an alleged public corruption case involving a cannabis business she co-owns. Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump who is one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, surrendered to authorities Thursday. She was also charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana. Half a dozen others, including Lucas’ daughters, were also in custody and charged with the alleged plot. The investigation into Lucas, 82, predates the Trump administration, NBC News previously reported. But the Justice Department’s move, just 12 days before a midterm election, is unusual, as federal authorities have generally avoided taking overt investigative action against political figures so close to an election. Lucas is not running for reelection this year, but he has ties to prominent Democrats on the ballot. Lucas said in a statement on social media that he will not be intimidated or back down. “Today, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the full weight of the federal government have been brought to bear on an 82-year-old great-grandmother,” Lucas wrote. “I grew up under Jim Crow. I’ve seen what happens when people in power try to silence those who stand up to them. I spent my life fighting and I’m not going to stop now.” Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel traveled to Norfolk, Virginia, for a news conference announcing the charges. Blanche said Lucas, who has been a public official for years, put her own financial interests ahead of the people she was elected to serve. “The Department of Justice intends to show that Senator Lucas violated the trust of the people of Portsmouth and Chesapeake, Virginia, and her colleagues in the state Senate,” he said. “Her first duty should have been to look out for her constituents before herself.” The Justice Department has brought several controversial cases against Trump’s political goals in his second term. Three weeks before the midterm elections, federal officials searched the home of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Ohmar of Minnesota in an immigration-related investigation and seized her phone. She has said she will not be silenced. The Justice Department typically has not filed political cases within 60 days of an election, but Blanche on Thursday dismissed those concerns. “It’s not even a rule, it’s a practice,” he said. He noted that Lucas was not a candidate for re-election. “The justice manual speaks very clearly about what the Department of Justice can and cannot do, and we cannot bring charges if our purpose is inappropriate,” Blanche said. But he said the case was presented correctly. In May, federal agents searched Lucas’ Portsmouth office, along with a business she co-owns called The Cannabis Outlet, which is located on High Street. U.S. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., said his communications with Lucas were monitored and that the Justice Department had become “Trump’s personal law firm, with his former personal lawyer carrying out vendettas against Trump’s political enemies.” A reporter from WAVY, an NBC affiliate, also received a notification letter showing that his communications with Lucas’s number had been intercepted on the wire. “disguising profits from illegal marijuana distribution” and that Lucas “used his political position in the Virginia State Senate to insulate” the company “from criminal scrutiny, to further the goal of wealth accumulation.” In an intercepted phone call in February 2026 with an alleged co-conspirator who has not been charged, Lucas allegedly said this was his “last chance at generational wealth,” adding, “I’ve gotten too old not to be greedy.” advocate for the legalization of marijuana in Virginia. The state now allows marijuana possession for adults 21 and older, but the sale of recreational marijuana remains illegal. That’s going to change; This summer, the governor and state legislators announced an agreement to allow licensed retail sales of marijuana beginning July 1, 2027. Lucas’s political career began more than four decades ago, when she was elected to the Portsmouth City Council. She was elected to the Virginia General Assembly in 1991. The Virginia Senate is made up of 40 members who serve four-year terms and receive an annual salary of $18,000, a figure set in 1988. Members also receive reimbursement for mileage and travel expenses during the General Assembly session. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, a former judge and Fox News host whom Trump appointed as the top federal prosecutor in the nation’s capital, tried and failed to charge six sitting members. of Congress over a video on social media that Trump didn’t like. A criminal case remains ongoing against former FBI Director James Comey over a photo of seashells on Instagram.
