VA state Senator indicted for drugs, fraud; Maryland early voting begins

And welcome in here at three o'clock. I'm Rena Morocco. We got a lot to talk about here on the DMV zone as we're working on all the stories here. Busy day as it usually is. And the breaking news off the top here from today's big story. Virginia State Senator Louise Lucas facing federal charges. The longtime Democratic lawmaker taken into custody this morning in connection with an alleged criminal enterprise involving marijuana distribution and money laundering. Prosecutors accusing Lucas and six co-defendants of racketeering. Lucas denying any wrongdoing, calling the case politically motivated in a statement. She says, quote, Today, the FBI, the Department of Justice and the full weight of the federal government have been wielded against an 82 year old great grandmother. 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 back and I am not stopping now. I'm not new to this. I'm true to this. I will not be intimidated. I will not be bullied and I will not back down. end quote. Virginia Public Radio reporter Michael Pope with more on this. And we knew that there had been an investigation unfolding. We had seen federal agents at her offices in the past couple of weeks here. And this is the disposition at this hour. What more do we know, Michael? Well, this is the October surprise of the election. And the person at the center of the October surprise is not even on the ballot. Louise Lucas has been in the state Senate since the early 1990s and she is up for re-election next year but the politics around this are just exploding so yeah Louise Lucas charged uh in federal court with racketeering money laundering bribery and distribution of marijuana at a time when it was illegal to do so so um yeah it's there are there's a lot of pushback here democrats don't like the timing of this uh governor abigail Spanberger out with a statement today saying the timing undermines the longstanding policy in the Department of Justice to not do stuff like this close to an election. And then also Spanberger saying this erodes trust in the Department of Justice. So we'll see how all this plays out. But there's a lot of evidence here, including intercepted phone calls. It seems like the federal government was listening in on her phone calls, including with lawmakers members of the general assembly she's quoted in one of the discussions of the members of the general assembly about these marijuana sales saying i did it when it was obviously illegal and at another point she's talking about the 420 festival she said the whole police department protected us that's a quote from the from Lucas to the lawmaker so a lot of evidence to go through We'll see where the actual court, the actual charges go. It's very difficult to prove corruption. Just ask former Governor Bob McDonnell, indicted by the Obama Department of Justice, and that case was thrown out by the Supreme Court. Yeah, I think the timing, like you said, is something that Democrats now are trying to figure out as they look ahead at these midterm elections. And her position, especially powerful, given the committee that she leads, a little bit of the back and forth that she had with the governor, especially on the budget issues at the beginning of the summer here. What is her play right now as it relates to, A, Republicans, but also her own party? Like, is she in vogue with them? Like, are they behind her? Are they supporting her right now? Yes. Well, we saw today's statements from Senate Majority Leader Scott Sirovell saying everybody is innocent until proven guilty. And then the statement from the governor talking about the timing of this saying it undermines trust in the Department of Justice. So, yeah, the Democrats are definitely standing by Luis Lucas, although there's a lot of stuff in this document. But at one point, there is discussion of an unindicted co-conspirator who handed Luis Lucas $100,000 in cash as a bribe in the General Assembly building. And they point out in the document that the $100,000 was provided by the FBI to the unindicted co-conspirator to trap Luis Lucas in a bribery scheme. Wow. Okay. Obviously, to get the arrest warrant, there is need for probable cause. It seems as though, based on what you're saying, sufficient enough there to arrest her. But nonetheless, Luis Lucas fighting back, saying that it is all politically motivated and that she won't back down. So we'll see what else comes of this. Michael, is she still in police custody, or what do we know about her possibility to be free? She's been released, yeah, but she was in custody today as part of the legal process. She has been released, and if you know anything about Luis Lucas, she is going to fight this. And it's going to be a very powerful defense that she is going to put on and that other Democrats will put on. Keep in mind, this is one of the most powerful people in Virginia politics. So she not only did she introduce the bill about creating the marketplaces for marijuana, but she is the chairwoman of the Senate Finance Committee, Finance and Appropriations Committee. So she basically, if you need to do anything involving money, she is at the fulcrum of that and can say no to it. Just ask Glenn Youngkin when he wanted to put an arena in Alexandria, Luis Lucas said no to the deal and it undermined it. So that gives you an indication of how powerful this position is that she holds. Michael Pope with Virginia Public Radio. We so appreciate the explainer there. Thank you. Thank you. Topic number two here, early voting expanding across the DMV ahead of the November election. And Maryland voters began casting their ballots this morning while Virginia is adding more early voting sites to make it easier for people to get to the polls. Maryland Matters reporter William Ford joining us now. Here we go, early voting. I mean, we're less than two weeks away for the midterm elections. And a lot of people look in, especially at that redistricting referendum. Yes, ma'am. And good afternoon. Question three is pretty much the big one in Maryland. And it's looking at, as you say, congressional redistricting that would amend the state constitution that would allow the legislature to. And by the way, this is a Democratic supermajority. So voters do this. They would be able to redraw congressional district maps. And for those who may forget that Maryland, seven of the eight congressional seats are held by Democrats. There's only one member of the GOP, and that's Andy Harris. Now, he's an eight-term GOP representative. Get that in, Ryan. So he gets a lot of support out there along the eastern shore in the first congressional district. Yeah. The governor, however, is going hard because, as we all know, this would give his party absolute, really, control. if they can get that seat there flipped here at least congressionally speaking what do we know about the push here how much are democrats putting money towards this because we're seeing especially the republicans across the country now funnel a ton of money to try and get ahead on the back end here are maryland democrats getting that money as well especially for this not sure about in terms of the the amount of money spent but it is as you said the phrase is going hard as a matter of fact Governor Moore was at Silver Spring this morning, and he has a race of his own, but he's expected to win against former state delegate Dan Cox. But the question three is, this is it, and the main nugget is on some of the campaign signs, stop Trump, vote yes on three. That is how it's being pushed, literally, full stop. And if you want to know in terms of who's behind it, excuse me, But you got Congressman Jamie Raskin. He was out there in Silver Spring this morning. You had Will Jawanda running for county executive. Now, the one key thing is if voters do this, it wouldn't be until the 2027 legislative session. And it may not affect anything until 2028 for Congress. So there's still a little time, but it comes fast. Yeah, we'll see what comes of it. And especially that push. I know there was polling on it. And even though most of these districts are Democratic, It's still a topic that most people are split on, regardless of politics. I mean, it's pretty divided on this. Well, there were some voters I got to chat with today. Now, here's a unique thing. The majority of them, who I got to talk to, are for it. And that's basically because they're looking at the Democratic leaders. Anything that says stop Donald Trump, Democrats are for it. But there was one individual who didn't want to give back his name. But he's confused. openly just i don't know what this means yeah it reads like if you you don't have a law degree or political science phd it's i'm lost yeah so that's why it comes into play yeah and they have gone through legislature to make sure that everybody agrees on them and yet still sometimes they get hung up in the courts because of that so we'll see what happens here and of course election uh midterms just less than two weeks away william always good to see you thank you for that of course check out his reporting with Maryland Matters let's move on to topic number three here. We're going to Virginia where the murder trial of Naresh Bhatti is set to resume Monday. The Manassas Park man accused of killing and dismembering his wife Mamta. The hearings yesterday featuring emotional witness testimony. But after the jury left, the judge had harsh words for the prosecution. Fox 5's Vernon Miles has been covering the case. All right, Vernon, what did the judge tell the prosecution here? Basically, Judge Kimberly Irving said, hurry it up. She's saying the prosecution is taking too long to present its case. There's a lot of witnesses. There's a lot of evidence to get through. And so far, they're saying the prosecution is hoping to take six of the seven weeks. The judge says that is not fair to the defense. Yeah, well, they had they said at the very beginning, close to 100 witnesses. And next week is going to be week four. And if you're going to take more than half, I think the judge is saying, can we get to this sooner? Why are we delaying this? What could that mean for prosecutors here? Does it mean that they've got to slim down the witnesses? Absolutely. And so this is something Stephanie said this morning when we were talking about this case. She was saying she doesn't really think that they've gotten to really the meat of the argument here. There's a lot left to cover. One of the big ones is DNA evidence. They haven't really touched on that so far. It's just been witnesses. So really, the prosecution needs to focus. They need to figure out how to get the point across and not get lost in a lot of these witness testimonies. Right, because we've been presented with, For example, blood on the carpet, the excessive amount of water usage. But nobody has been able to say, okay, well, whose blood does this belong to? And, yes, you could argue that they are laying the crumbs here for the jury. And yet still it seems as though the judge is like, we need to expedite this here. What's next here for at least the case in general? What is the defense saying? Yeah, well, like you're saying, that DNA evidence, that's going to be a big part of this. Yesterday we heard all about the saw. That was a kind of crucial part of the alleged dismemberment of Mamdabat. but there's no evidence yet connecting the saw directly to the murder so they really need to hone in on that over the next few weeks and again we'll hear from the defense in this video which is when the prosecution believes that Naresh Bhat was dumping of the body that he they allege he dismembered with the saw that he then gave to this man according to the government and this man said that he for a second it didn't he didn't know what he was going to do with the saw but his friends convinced him to turn it over to police so that he would have a clear conscience. That's what he testified to. Well, I think one of the most fascinating moments in the trial yesterday was him saying, look, some of his friends and family were saying, don't get involved. They were saying, you know, stay out of this. But he was like, look, I couldn't have that on my conscience. I couldn't go forward with that. I had to turn over the evidence, even if it wasn't getting him in trouble. All right. We'll see if and when the defense shows up. And there's always a possibility that Naresh Bhat takes the stand as well, although for now, we don't know exactly what he will do. Vernon, thank you for breaking it down for us. We appreciate it. Stay with us here on the DMV Zone. We will be right back.