Washington DC - The FBI conducted searches Wednesday at the office and a business of a top Democratic lawmaker in Virginia as part of a corruption investigation, US media reported.
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-authorized federal search warrant" in Portsmouth, Virginia, as part of an ongoing investigation but declined to specify what it was about.
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 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 [Donald] Trump's repeated abuse of the Department of Justice to target his perceived political opponents," Representative Bobby Scott said in a statement.
Trump's campaign of political retribution
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.
Republicans and Democrats have also been involved in a fierce battle in recent months to redraw electoral districts ahead of the November midterm elections.