Louise Lucas, a long-serving member of the Virginia state senate, is the co-owner of a legal marijuana dispensary business that is a target of the probe, according to Fox News and The New York Times.
Asked about the raid, the FBI said that it was “executing a court-authorised federal search warrant” in Portsmouth, Virginia, as part of an ongoing investigation but declined to specify what it was about.
In a post on X Wednesday evening, Lucas said the actions of the FBI “are about far more than one state senator; they are about power and who is allowed to use it on behalf of the people.”
She added: “What we saw fits a clear pattern from this administration: when challenged, they try to intimidate and silence the voices who stand up to them.”
Lucas was instrumental in the recent move to redraw Virginia’s congressional districts, an initiative that could see Democrats pick up four more seats in the House of Representatives.
The push comes amid a nationwide battle by Democrats and Republicans to redraw maps ahead of the November midterm elections, which was kicked off last year by Texas Republicans at the urging of president Donald Trump.
The Times said the corruption investigation started during the Biden administration, but a Democratic member of Congress from Virginia questioned whether the raid Wednesday was politically motivated.
“While we await the full facts of the investigation, it must be acknowledged that this FBI raid occurs in the broader context of president Trump’s repeated abuse of the department of justice to target his perceived political opponents,” Representative Bobby Scott said in a statement.
Scott noted the recent indictment of former FBI director James Comey, an outspoken critic of the president, for allegedly threatening Trump’s life, as well as a failed attempt to bring charges against another of his foes, New York attorney general Letitia James.
Since returning to office, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against perceived enemies, purging government officials he deemed disloyal, targeting law firms involved in past cases against him and pulling federal funding from universities.