Feds allege Sen. L Louise Lucas trafficked marijuana through business

Federal prosecutors unveiled criminal charges against Virginia Democratic State Senator Louise Lucas, her two daughters and a nephew, accusing the group of marijuana-dealing crimes, money laundering, and bribery. Todd Blanche, the Attorney General, saying this. The Department of Justice intends to prove that Senator Lucas violated the trust of the people of Portsmouth and Chesapeake, Virginia, and of her state Senate colleagues. Through her elected office, Senator Lucas has been a public servant of the people of Virginia. Her first duty should have been looking out for her constituents before herself. On the Hill, host Tom Fitzgerald now joining us with the very latest around this. Tom, I hate to pose the question, but are we surprised about this? Well, no, because there's been an investigation into State Senator Louise Lucas going on for quite some time. You'll remember a few weeks ago, her office were raided by the FBI. They had searched the premises. The Attorney General of the United States, Todd Blanche, said today, this investigation predates the current Trump administration. So federal authorities have been looking into this, apparently, for quite some time. And they presented this information to a federal grand jury. The grand jurors looked at the evidence that was presented to them and then returned from what we're told is an eight-count indictment. Now, one of the things we should lay out for folks, Guy, is what the laws are in Virginia. And, you know, legal marijuana has taken root across the country with recreational sales. One of the places it has not taken root, though, is in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Now, the law in Virginia allows for personal recreational use in a small amount of marijuana that people are able to grow for their own use. There is medical marijuana retail outlets, and that is the business that Senator Lucas was a part of. It was a business called the Cannabis Outlet. What this federal indictment alleges, though, is that the prosecutors are saying that the cannabis outlet was going far beyond what would have been a legal medical marijuana business, that they were actually selling marijuana on an underground recreational basis. Now, there is a framework in place for Virginia to move towards a recreational industry. Guy, that's not going to start until 2027. So, Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, said there was at least $5 million that they believe was generated by this illegal business. This is, you know, what they refer to as a RICO case. Normally, you would hear that about, you know, mafia-organized crime cases. It's for racketeering influential criminal organization. um there was um you know that search we don't know what was produced by that search we do have a statement out uh from the democratic state Senate leader Scott Serval in just the last few minutes where uh he laid out what he said was you know very serious charges in this case that he acknowledged but also said he wants to see the judicial system um take its course unencumbered by, you know, any outside forces. Fitz, we, for quite some time, have heard rumblings about these allegations, to which many of the Democrats stated she is, quote, too old to be greedy. This perhaps could not come at a worse time for the Democrats as we quickly approach midterms. From a local and or national perspective, for undecided voters, do you think it will have any effect? Well, look, this came up in the press conference today. You know, there has been not a written out policy. This isn't stated or written down anywhere. But, you know, Todd Blanche acknowledged today that it has been Justice Department practice to not bring a case like this against an elected, you know, leader within anywhere from 60 to 90 days before an election. God, we're 12 days away from the election. But let's also state that Louise Lucas is not up for for reelection. But what you know what she is, has been one of the loudest, probably fiercest opponents of Republicans on social media. Some of her takedowns have been withering of not only President Trump, but a former Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin. And a lot of people in the D.C. area probably remember as probably the lawmaker that put the kibosh on the Washington Capitals moving to Alexandria, Virginia, where a couple of years ago, Ted Leonsis announced he was leaving Washington, D.C., that the gallery place neighborhood where the arena was located was too crime-ridden. He was going to move over to a brand-new arena over in Alexandria. They had a big announcement of it. They had hundreds of people in attendance. It never happened. Yeah, because Louise Lucas killed that bill in her committee and it never saw the light of the day. Capitals are in the midst of a multi-year refurbishment of that arena right now. And they're staying put. Fitz, I get under a minute left real quickly. You are obviously host of On the Hill. You are in constant contact with a number of politicians on both sides of the aisle. Any word from them as yet? Have you spoken to anyone? Well, we've heard from Senator Servo, as I said this morning, but, you know, there has been kind of a waiting on the edge to crack on this, because ever since the FBI raided Louise Lucas's offices, people were, you know, understandably wondering what that probe was all about. Now, we should also mention that there's a lot of back and forth politically about this. We are within a dozen days of an election. Now, some Democrats are saying already this morning that this is politically motivated, that since Louise Lucas was such a high-profile Democrat, such a staunch critic of Republicans, that in their view that this was some kind of payback for the Democratic lawmakers' online activity or some of her involvement in Virginia's effort to redistrict congressional lines in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The attorney general was asked about that flat out today, and he said, you know, in several different ways in his viewpoint, read the indictment. It's there for all to see. We've posted it on Fox5DC.com. You know, he also said that this was a grand jury that returned this indictment. Todd Blanch didn't wake up one day and said, I'm charging Louise Lucas. This was presented to a grand jury and also speaking today was the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, who likely will be prosecuting this case in the federal courts. We don't quite know which venue it would be at, whether it would be the U.S. District Court in Richmond or whether this would be the U.S. District Court down near her district or even up here in Alexandria. But I also think it's very likely we're not going to see this case before a jury, before a judge for some time. These are massive cases. You know, we saw the Virginia Republican Governor Bob McDonnell face corruption charges in a federal case. We've seen, obviously, recently D.C. Democratic Councilman Trayvon White face a trial on corruption charges in the District of Columbia. So these things will take time. I don't expect that this is going to be a quick rush to the courtroom here. Well, one thing's for sure. He'll stay on top of it. That's today's DC Wrap. You can catch more on the Fox Local app and at Fox 5 DC on all platforms. You can also find us on the Fox 5 Live Zone every weekday from noon until 2 p.m. I'm Guy Lambert. On behalf of producer Joey Bark, thank you for listening. We'll see you next time.