(CN) - The FBI raided the offices of state Senator L. Louise Lucas in Portsmouth, Virginia, and a cannabis retail business she co-owns on Wednesday as part of a corruption investigation. 

The raid comes exactly two weeks after Virginia voters approved a redistricting effort led by Governor Abigail Spanberger, which is set to grant Democrats up to four additional congressional seats, which has upset President Donald Trump amid his national redistricting project. 

FBI Norfolk Public Affairs Officer Cassandra Temple said at the scene the raid was part of a "court-authorized law enforcement activity" but did not provide further details. 

Lucas, the president pro tempore of the Virginia Senate, has represented the state's 18th District since 1992 and was the first woman and first Black person to hold the office. She chairs the Committee on Finance and Appropriations, also the first Black person to hold the position. 

Lucas had been a vocal proponent of the redistricting effort, calling it a response to GOP-led states redrawing their own congressional maps before the 2026 midterm elections. 

Virginia House Speaker Don Scott called the search deeply concerning in a statement and said the public should "take this with a grain of salt and allow the facts to come out."

"At this point, we simply do not know what this ultimately means," Scott said. "Right now, there is far more theatrics and speculation than actual information available to the public."

Scott noted the raid was first reported by Fox News, asking how the outlet had reporters such as Alex Hogan, the outlet's London correspondent, on the scene as the search warrant was executed. 

He suggested the outlet was tipped off, which would require the express approval of the local U.S. attorney - in this case, Frank Bradsher, as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, or Justice Department Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva. 

Virginia's new congressional map would likely change its congressional makeup from six Democratic and five Republican seats to 10 Democratic seats and one Republican seat. 

Democrats in the state began crafting the map after Texas, North Carolina and Florida moved to increase the share of Republican seats in their states and California moved to increase its share of Democrats. 

Virginia's redistricting effort is not a done deal, as ongoing litigation brought by the National Republican Congressional Committee and Virginia-based Republican U.S. Representatives Ben Cline and Morgan Griffith could ultimately reverse voters' approval. 

Tazewell County Circuit Judge Jack Hurley Jr. sided with the Republicans and determined the Democrats had offered a misleading ballot question that fell short of what is acceptable to present to voters. Hurley also determined the referendum violated the state constitution's timing requirements. 

Hurley's ruling is now before the Supreme Court of Virginia, which heard oral arguments on April 27. 

Wednesday's raid also comes a day after Republican voters in Indiana ousted five incumbent state senators who voted against a redistricting effort there in 2025, advancing five of seven Trump-endorsed challengers.  

U.S. Representative Bobby Scott, the Democrat for Portsmouth, said in a statement on X that the raid was part of the Trump administration's "repeated abuse" of the Justice Department to target perceived enemies. 

"It should be noted that this is occurring just two weeks after Senator Lucas helped lead the successful effort by Virginia voters to reject President Trump's attempt to rig the midterm elections," Scott said. "This raid on Senator Lucas' office and businesses also comes as President Trump has pressured the Department of Justice to pursue investigations and prosecutions against New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI Director James Comey, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and multiple Democratic members of Congress."

Scott added Lucas has a right to due process and the presumption of innocence. 

On April 28, the Justice Department charged Comey with threatening Trump via an Instagram post depicting seashells arranged to read "86 47." The number 86 is often used as slang for removal or elimination, and Trump is the 47th president. 

A grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina approved an indictment, charging Comey with making a "serious expression of an intent to do harm" to the president and with transmitting the threat across state lines.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the charges against Comey, a longtime target of the president, at a press conference, stating the "alleged conduct is the same kind of conduct that we will never tolerate and that we will always investigate and regularly prosecute."

Source: Courthouse News Service