Spanberger Says Lucas Presumed Innocent, Faults Indictment Timing

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said Thursday that state Sen. Louise Lucas is presumed innocent, and she faulted the Justice Department for charging Lucas close to an election.

Spanberger said she had read the charging document. “She and her family deserve the opportunity to present their defense and speak to the allegations presented,” the governor said in a statement.

The department, she said, had a “previously longstanding policy” of avoiding indictments and other significant investigative steps near elections. The timing of this case undermines that policy, she said, and “further erodes the trust the American people deserve to have in the Department of Justice.” She did not say which election she meant.

Federal prosecutors announced the eight-count indictment earlier in the day. They accuse Lucas, 82, of running an illegal marijuana business with relatives and using her Senate seat to protect it.

Her two daughters and a grandson are among the seven people charged. Lucas herself faces five counts, including racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit honest services fraud. FBI Director Kash Patel put the five-year scheme’s value at an estimated $4.5 million, according to the Justice Department.

Much of the bribery case turns on Virginia’s planned licenses for recreational marijuana sales. Prosecutors say Lucas paid $750,000 in August 2022 to own a shell company that she and an unindicted co-conspirator expected to land a license.

In January, according to the indictment, she took $100,000 from him as a partial repayment. The FBI had supplied the cash.

Lucas answered the charges in a statement on X. She said “the full weight of the federal government” was being used against “an 82-year-old great-grandmother” and vowed not to back down.

The indictment also lays out the governor’s own part in the fight over marijuana sales. Both chambers passed bills this year to allow sales starting in 2027. Spanberger sent them back with amendments, one of which would have delayed the start from January to July 2027.

Lawmakers rejected her changes April 22, and she vetoed the original bill in May, the indictment says. A deal announced in June put the sales rules in the state budget. Licensed sales are now set to begin July 1, 2027.

Lucas was first elected to the Senate in 1991. She became president pro tempore in 2020 and chairs the Finance and Appropriations Committee.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric M. Hurt and Brian J. Samuels are handling the prosecution. The Justice Department noted that an indictment is only an allegation and that all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.