Virginia Democrats now stress presumption of innocence for an indicted Senate leader accused of running a marijuana racketeering scheme, after years of declaring “no one is above the law” when Donald Trump faced charges.
Federal prosecutors have charged Virginia Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas and six others in what they describe as a years-long criminal enterprise tied to marijuana distribution, money laundering, bribery, and fraud.
Fox News Digital reported that the indictment alleges Lucas used her political position to protect the operation and influence legislation that could benefit it, while Democrats across the state suddenly discovered the virtues of due process.
The same party figures who treated prior Trump indictments as settled moral verdicts are now urging restraint, questioning federal motives, and insisting the allegations must be tested free from politics.
That shift is the story.
Lucas, a Portsmouth Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee and serves as vice chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia, surrendered to authorities and denied wrongdoing.
An indictment is not a conviction. Prosecutors still must prove their case.
What they allege is extensive. The charging documents describe a network of relatives and associates that distributed at least 100 kilograms of marijuana and laundered the proceeds.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the alleged scheme generated roughly $4.5 million.
The New York Post reported that prosecutors framed the case as a racketeering conspiracy tied to The Cannabis Outlet and related shell companies, with nearly $5 million in ill-gotten gains over nearly five years, including a $100,000 bribe and a $750,000 payment for a shell-company stake expected to yield a recreational license. The paper also cited a quote attributed to Lucas: “This is our last chance at generational wealth... I’ve got too old to not be greedy.”
Federal searches took place in May. Multiple outlets, including the Washington Post, CBS News, and the Associated Press, reported after those searches that the investigation began during the Biden administration. U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche later reiterated that the probe started years ago.
At a Department of Justice news conference, Blanche rejected claims of political score-settling.
Blanche said:
"We don't do political paybacks,"
After surrendering, Lucas cast the case as federal muscle aimed at an elderly lawmaker who refuses to fold.
Lucas said:
"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,"
She added that she grew up under Jim Crow, had seen power used to silence dissent, and would not be bullied or back down.
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., took a split approach. He called the charges “serious” and said Lucas should face justice if they are true. He also accused the Justice Department and FBI of timing the arrest for two weeks before an election “for political reasons,” and claimed Trump has a pattern of targeting opponents.
Subramanyam told Fox News Digital:
"It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican, the American people deserve answers and accountability from everyone,"
Accountability, in other words, with an asterisk for timing, motive, and party label.
Virginia’s Democratic leadership answered the Lucas charges with a sudden catechism of legal fairness.
Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi stressed Lucas’s “constitutional presumption of innocence” and said she “is fully entitled to legal due process.”
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said the allegations must be tested through a legal process “free from political interference or bias.”
Rep. Bobby Scott, joined by Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, reminded the public that “those charged with crime are innocent until proven guilty,” while also questioning Justice Department motivations.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger likewise stressed the presumption of innocence.
None of that language is wrong on its face. Presumption of innocence is the American baseline. The problem is the selective memory that comes with it.
When a Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump in March 2023, the Democratic Party of Virginia did not host a seminar on restraint. It declared Trump had been “rightfully indicted” and intoned that “no one is above the law.”
During Trump’s first impeachment fight, Scott said “the facts are uncontested,” called the conduct a “gross abuse of presidential power,” and repeated the same slogan: “no one is above the law.”
After the 2023 classified-documents indictment, a case later dismissed without a trial, Hashmi rejected Republican claims of selective prosecution. Spanberger, days after that indictment, called congressional defenses of Trump’s handling of the documents “deeply detrimental to our national security.”
Jones previously accused Trump of trying to “incite a riot” and “overturn an election.”
Then their own Senate president pro tempore was charged in a sprawling narcotics-and-corruption case. Suddenly the verbs changed. Process replaced presumption of guilt. Bias became the danger. Motives needed inspecting.
The Constitution did not change between those episodes. The defendant did.
Democrats’ cleanest political attack would be a brand-new Trump DOJ vendetta invented after Inauguration Day. The reporting in the Fox News account cuts against that script.
The investigation that produced the Lucas charges is described as beginning during the Biden years. Blanche said it began years ago and denied political paybacks. Searches already occurred in May before the later public charging fight.
That does not prove every charging decision is beyond debate. It does make the simplest “revenge indictment” talking point harder to sell without ignoring the timeline the Democrats’ preferred media outlets already helped establish.
Lucas remains entitled to her day in court. So were the people Democrats spent years treating as convicted in the press. Equal protection is not a team jersey.
If “no one is above the law” only applies to Republicans, it was never a principle, just a slogan with a caucus meeting attached.
