Virginia Senate Leader L. Louise Lucas Indicted on Federal Racketeering Charges
The Senate president pro tempore surrendered to authorities Thursday morning. A 45-page indictment accuses her and six co-defendants of running a marijuana enterprise and laundering its proceeds.
Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, the Senate’s president pro tempore and one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, has been indicted on federal racketeering, drug and money-laundering charges. The 82-year-old surrendered to authorities Thursday morning.
A 45-page indictment unsealed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia charges Lucas and six co-defendants — including her daughters and a nephew — in an alleged criminal enterprise built around a Portsmouth cannabis shop she co-owns. Lucas faces five of the eight counts. The charges include racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to launder money.
Prosecutors say Lucas “used her political position in the Virginia state senate to insulate the Lucas enterprise from criminal scrutiny” and to push for legislation that would benefit the business. The enterprise is The Cannabis Outlet, a medical cannabis shop on High Street in Portsmouth that she co-owns. The indictment says wiretaps captured her describing the scheme as her “last chance at generational wealth” — and quoted her telling associates, “I’ve got too old to not be greedy,” on Feb. 9 of this year.
Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel are expected to hold a press conference in Norfolk on Thursday about the case.
The charges follow a May search in which federal agents went through Lucas’s office in Portsmouth and the shop. Lucas called the search an attempt to intimidate her at the time.
A case Democrats call political
The timing drew immediate criticism. The Justice Department acted 12 days before the midterm elections — a window in which federal authorities typically avoid overt steps against political figures. Lucas is not up for reelection this year, but she has ties to prominent Democrats who are on the ballot.
NBC News previously reported that the investigation predates the Trump administration. But Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., said his own communications with Lucas were monitored and called the Justice Department Trump’s “own personal law firm, with his former personal attorney carrying out vendettas on Trump’s political enemies.” A reporter with WAVY, an NBC affiliate, also received a notification letter showing his calls with Lucas had been swept up in a wiretap.
Lucas has been a frequent critic of President Donald Trump. She became nationally known this year for pushing a dramatic redrawing of Virginia’s 11 congressional districts to favor Democrats — a plan the Virginia Supreme Court struck down in May.
An indictment is a charge, not a conviction. The Associated Press was attempting to reach attorneys for Lucas for comment Thursday.
