Top Spanberger ally targeted in FBI corruption probe has long history of controversy
On Wednesday, the FBI raided the office of a Democratic state lawmaker with a history of financial and ethical controversies.
During her more than four decades in politics, Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas has faced controversies ranging from her handling of campaign funds to the way she runs her marijuana dispensary. Federal authorities have been investigating Lucas on suspicion of corruption and illegal marijuana sales for years, beginning under the Biden administration, sources familiar told Fox News Digital.
Lucas' office did not respond to a request for comment sent by Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
The raid comes after years of scrutiny over Lucas’ political conduct, business dealings and public behavior.
Lucas has been a central figure in the commonwealth’s redistricting fight and is widely considered the driving force behind Virginia’s new map, which voters narrowly approved but is currently held up in court.
When Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, lambasted Virginia Democrats over what he and others have largely characterized as a push to gerrymander the commonwealth for political ends, Lucas issued a profane response that she "f---ing finished" what Republicans started on a federal level.
She also has dropped several memes and GIFs on social media condemning former Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Virginia Republicans like Rep. Jennifer Kiggans of Virginia Beach — and has enlisted background tracks such as Famous Dex’s "Hoes Mad."
One such post includes an artificially generated image of Kiggans and Reps. Ben Cline, Rob Wittman and John McGuire, wearing McDonald’s uniforms, while a dig at Kiggans had the caption "you want fries with that."
Wittman was shown being pulled away from the House Armed Services Committee gavel, the panel for which he is considered the chair-in-waiting.
Another meme showed a red-eyed Lucas split next to a U-Haul truck at the governor’s mansion while Youngkin was in office.
"She completely controls what’s happening in Virginia right now," a Republican strategist, commenting on her fervent ambassadorship of the redistricting referendum, told CNN.
During her tenure as the top Democrat on the Virginia Senate’s Finance and Appropriations Committee, Lucas has pushed for the expansion of casinos in the commonwealth. Due to her position on the committee, the senator has considerable sway over whether casino projects advance.
While trusted to help regulate gambling, Lucas has pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from major players in the gaming industry.
Lucas, for instance, reportedly played a pivotal role in advancing an $11 billion casino project being developed by Comstock Holdings in northern Virginia. Comstock Holdings and its top executive are some of Lucas’ largest donors.
In November 2023, Comstock CEO Christopher Clemente cut a $100,000 campaign check to Lucas, per campaign finance records. Comstock itself donated an additional $100,000 to Lucas between August 2024 and December 2025.
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Rivers Casino Portsmouth, which Lucas has repeatedly bragged about helping to establish, has funneled tens of thousands of dollars into her campaign account since opening in 2023. Lucas also accepted $165,000 from the company Pace-O-Matic and its executives as she pushed to legalize gambling machines made by the company.
Text messages obtained by the Virginia Mercury in June 2024 indicate that local officials viewed Lucas as a key powerbroker when it came to approving gambling projects.
Lucas’ pot shop was also subject to a journalistic investigation, given that Virginia still outlaws cannabis in most forms.
According to the commonwealth’s cannabis regulatory agency, medical marijuana is legal, as well as possession in a private residence and public possession of up to 1 oz.
Sales of "adult-use" cannabis and pop-up shops are illegal, as is driving under the influence of the drug or transporting it in a rideshare.
With that, the cannabis shop co-owned by Lucas and located next to her senatorial office in Portsmouth has long received scrutiny.
A Virginia Mercury investigation showed some "Lucky Charms"-labeled bars contained the substance Delta-9 THC, which it said conflicts with Virginia’s ban on sales but allowance of small-scale possessions.
Lucas has advertised her shop on X, writing in a 2022 post that she was a "78-year-old grandma who legalized pot and now has her own cannabis (sic) store. And I’m the last thing standing between The GOP and total control of Virginia. That’s worth an [retweet]."
She followed that up with a message saying, "did I mention my store is on High Street in Portsmouth," with a GIF of former President Barack Obama dropping a microphone.
The Virginia Mercury’s investigation found "rampant mislabeling" among dealers across the commonwealth, and the professor said findings from Lucas’ store were in line with the 66 total samples collected statewide.
Lucas had also been accused of fomenting unrest during a George Floyd protest in her home city of Portsmouth.
Lucas and several protesters were charged with conspiracy to commit a felony and injury to a monument exceeding $1,000, following a June 2020 protest at a Confederate monument.
Protesters tore heads off of some of the monument’s statues, according to The Associated Press, and at one point, a statue was toppled to the ground, seriously wounding a protester.
Lucas’ charges were eventually dropped, but she had also called for Portsmouth Police Chief Angela Greene to resign amid the fallout. Greene later said she had been fired and would be suing over her termination – after she considered the situation a conspiracy in which people drew hundreds of others to the site to commit "felonious acts."
An account from the AP quoted Lucas as telling police officers responding to the unrest that "they are going to put some paint on this thing and y’all can’t arrest them… [they’re] gonna do it and you can’t stop them. They’ve got a right. Go ahead."
When police warned Lucas against instructing protesters to vandalize, she denied she did so: "I’m not telling them to do anything, I’m telling you [that] you can’t arrest them."
Lucas, who is Black, has regularly used her donors’ money to bankroll historically black churches in and around her Senate district. Those churches, in turn, work to support both Lucas and the broader Virginia Democratic Party.
Second Calvary Baptist Church, for one, accepted nearly $30,000 in sponsorship payment from Lucas’ campaign between March 2023 and April 2024. In 2025, the church went all out to boost the Democrats during the commonwealth’s elections.
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"You can rest assured that I will be telling our congregation to vote for you," the church’s head pastor told Democratic Virginia attorney general nominee Jay Jones in a video shot in November 2025.
The church also held a campaign event for then-Rep. Abigail Spanberger and endorsed her bid for the governor’s mansion.
New Mount Olivet Baptist Church, where Lucas serves as a deaconess, has received close to $15,000 from her campaign account since 2021. The church has assisted the political career of Lucas’ daughter and encouraged its members to support the Democratic Party.
Third Baptist Church in Portsmouth and New Community Temple, which each received thousands from Lucas through her campaign account, have had their pastors push congregants to vote for Democrats.
Pew Research Center conducted a survey in 2022, in which 77% of adults said that they had negative feelings about churches endorsing political candidates.