The Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant at the Portsmouth office and the marijuana business of Virginia’s Senate President Louise Lucas Wednesday.
There is no information about what the search was for or any associated pending charges against Lucas.
"The FBI is executing a court-authorized federal search warrant in Portsmouth, VA. There is no threat to public safety. This is an ongoing investigation and no further information is publicly available at this time,” the FBI told partner station VPM News.
FOX News, which has a bureau in Washington D.C., was on the scene and said it knew “from officials that at least 10 locations are being looked at today.”
It’s not clear what FOX reporter Alex Hogan meant by “locations are looked at,” and the FBI’s press office did not immediately return a request for comment.
Virginia’s Speaker of the House and Portsmouth Del. Don Scott said in a statement he was “deeply concerned” about the raid at Lucas’ properties.
“At this point we simply do not know what this ultimately means. Right now, there is far more theatrics and speculation than actual information available to the public,” his statement reads.
The Peninsula’s U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott released a statement Wednesday morning saying the raid at Lucas’s properties could be politically motivated.
“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 wrote.
Scott pointed to the now-dismissed case against New York Attorney General Letitia James, which alleged bank fraud while securing a mortgage for a home in Norfolk; the April indictment of former FBI director James Comey and a closed criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell.
All three subjects have been critical of Trump, or made decisions the president objected to.
“The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president,” Powell said in January.
Sen. Lucas was a leader in Virginia’s recent redistricting campaign, campaigning in favor of a referendum that allows a new, Democratic-friendly congressional district map for November elections.
Virginia’s effort was spurred by Republican-led states making similar changes with Trump’s support to make it easier for Republicans in the congressional midterm elections.
