On Wednesday, when FBI brokers raided the workplace of some of the highly effective Democrats in Virginia, Fox Information simply occurred to have one in all its Washington-based overseas correspondents on the scene within the small metropolis of Portsmouth. What a rare coincidence!
The raid focused state Sen. Louise Lucas, the 82-year-old president professional tempore of the Virginia Senate, who’s nationally outstanding for 2 causes. Lucas was the driving pressure behind the 10-1 Democratic congressional map that Virginia just lately enacted to retaliate towards equally biased Republican maps drawn by pink states. She’s additionally a pugnacious tweeter who gleefully mocks her political opponents on-line. After her congressional maps turned regulation, Lucas posted an AI picture of 4 incumbent Republican members of Congress working at McDonald’s.
There are two doable explanations for why this raid occurred. As MS NOW’s Carol Leonnig studies, the Justice Division has apparently been investigating “proof that [Lucas] solicited or accepted bribes” for 3 years. Three years in the past Democratic President Joe Biden was in workplace, which means that the probe into Lucas is legit.
On the identical time, Leonnig additionally studies that Lindsey Halligan, a former insurance coverage lawyer who Trump illegally tried to put in as the highest federal prosecutor in jap Virginia, pressured prosecutors to deliver costs towards Lucas previous to the midterm elections, believing that “it could be good for the White Home to have the ability, earlier than the midterms, to accuse a outstanding state Democrat in Virginia with bribery.”
Halligan was additionally a central determine within the failed prosecutions of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Legal professional Basic Letitia James; final September, Trump appeared to order former Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi to focus on Comey and James, each of whom Trump resents for investigating him previously. Trump’s Justice Division has since indicted Comey a second time, claiming {that a} social media put up the place Comey organized seashells to spell “86 47” was an specific menace to kill Trump.
Which brings us again to the truth that Donald Trump’s de facto state media outlet simply occurred to have a reporting workforce on the scene when the FBI raided Lucas’s workplace. It’s arduous to think about how Fox Information may have recognized that it wanted to have a reporter in Portsmouth until the Justice Division tipped them off.
The Justice Division didn’t behave this manner previously. As then-Legal professional Basic Merrick Garland mentioned in a 2022 press convention following an FBI raid at Trump’s Florida house, “we communicate by our [court] filings and the circumstances we deliver; that’s the solely method we communicate.” Authorized ethics guidelines governing prosecutors strictly restrict their capacity to make “extrajudicial feedback which have a considerable chance of heightening public condemnation of the accused.”
By politicizing the Lucas investigation, in different phrases, the Justice Division tainted its jury pool.
This rule is grounded within the Structure. When the federal government levies accusations towards a person that received’t be examined in a public trial, it denies that particular person due course of. However there’s additionally a sensible motive why prosecutors ought to keep away from creating an pointless media spectacle round a felony investigation.
When prosecutors run a media marketing campaign towards a felony defendant, that shifts the dialog about whether or not that defendant is responsible or harmless from a courtroom, the place there are procedural guidelines and clear jury directions, to a public discussion board the place potential jurors might draw unpredictable conclusions. That’s doubly true when the defendant is somebody like Lucas, who’s greater than able to pushing her personal opposing narrative to the press. And it’s triply true when the defendant is a outstanding political opponent of the prosecutor’s boss.
By politicizing the Lucas investigation, in different phrases, the Justice Division tainted its jury pool. If Lucas is ultimately arrested and delivered to trial, prosecutors are going to have a troublesome time discovering jurors who haven’t been uncovered to media studies suggesting that the prosecution is a sham introduced for an improper political goal.
3 ways to consider the Lucas raid
Broadly talking, there are three explanation why the Justice Division might have focused Louise Lucas. The primary is that she may very well be responsible of a severe crime. If that’s true, the questionable timing of this raid — shortly after Lucas efficiently redrew Virginia’s congressional maps — the inclusion of Fox Information, and the involvement of recognized unhealthy actors equivalent to Halligan are all simply avoidable errors by DOJ.
Not lengthy after the raid occurred, Lucas put out an announcement accusing Trump’s DOJ of focusing on her to “intimidate and silence the voices who stand as much as” the Trump administration. She is going to little doubt spend the approaching months pushing this narrative to everybody who may probably serve on her jury. And the DOJ’s politicization of its investigation into her makes this narrative plausible.
A second chance is that Lucas is harmless. Maybe the Biden-era investigation into her uncovered no actionable proof of felony wrongdoing, and this raid occurred solely as a result of Trump’s DOJ thought that going after a outstanding Democrat would assist Republicans within the 2026 midterms.
If that’s the case, the DOJ’s hamhandedness is more likely to undermine that objective as properly. The Lucas raid didn’t happen in isolation. It exists towards the backdrop of the prosecutions of Comey, James, and different political opponents of Trump. Fox Information’s presence on the raid solely provides to the impression that Lucas’s solely actual crime is being a Democrat.
Persuadable voters — or, a minimum of, persuadable voters who observe the information intently sufficient to bear in mind {that a} Democratic state senator’s workplace was raided by the FBI — will largely pay attention to this broader context. So they’re unlikely to be satisfied by the Lucas raid that Democrats are corrupt.
There’s additionally a 3rd chance, which is that Lucas really dedicated a criminal offense, however it’s not the form of crime that the Justice Division would ordinarily prosecute.
Legislation enforcement companies unavoidably train discretion when deciding whom to focus on. This is the reason, for instance, you’ve most likely by no means been pulled over for driving 57 mph in a 55 mph zone. Felony authorized codes are typically very expansive, and so they usually seize exercise that’s neither significantly morally reprehensible nor significantly dangerous to society. Legislation enforcement additionally has restricted assets, and it needs to be selective about which potential crimes it really investigates and who it arrests, even when it does uncover proof that somebody broke the regulation.
The Supreme Court docket acknowledged that regulation enforcement should have this authority to train “prosecutorial discretion” as just lately as 2023.
As a result of felony codes usually seize comparatively innocuous conduct, prosecutors can probably harass principally law-abiding residents by intently monitoring their conduct till they journey up and commit a criminal offense. Traditionally, the Justice Division has had strong safeguards to particularly stop harassment of elected officers. Till just lately, for instance, the DOJ required prosecutors to seek the advice of with the division’s Public Integrity Part earlier than submitting costs towards a member of Congress — though Trump’s Justice Division suspended this coverage shortly earlier than it introduced what look like politically motivated costs towards US Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ).
All of which is a great distance of claiming that it could prove that Lucas did commit a criminal offense, however it was the form of offense that the DOJ would have ignored if not for the truth that this Justice Division is raring to focus on elected Democrats.
Was the Lucas raid a part of performing Legal professional Basic Todd Blanche’s audition to maintain his job?
One different issue looming over the Lucas raid is that performing Legal professional Basic Todd Blanche, who was previously one in all Trump’s private legal professionals, has not but locked down his job. Blanche is the Senate-confirmed deputy lawyer common, which signifies that he runs the DOJ until and till the Senate confirms a everlasting chief to exchange Bondi, who Trump eliminated final month.
Bondi was reportedly fired as a result of Trump felt that she was ineffective in focusing on his political foes.
Blanche, in different phrases, has good motive to worry that he’ll wind up unemployed until he succeeds the place Bondi failed. So Lucas might have been focused in order that Blanche can show to Trump that he deserves to stay lawyer common. That additionally would possibly clarify why Fox Information was current for the raid — Trump is an avid Fox Information watcher.
Blanche additionally has a historical past of ordering questionable arrests towards outstanding Democrats. In Could 2025, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat, visited an ICE detention facility in his metropolis and requested to tour it. He arrived shortly after three congressional Democrats who’ve a authorized proper to tour ICE amenities, additionally sought such a tour.
After Baraka was turned away, a federal regulation enforcement officer was caught on video saying that “we’re arresting the mayor proper now, per the deputy lawyer common of america” — that’s, Todd Blanche. The consequence was a chaotic scene the place about 20 Homeland Safety brokers descended upon a crowd of protesters and the three members of Congress to put Baraka beneath arrest.
After the fees towards Baraka fell aside — a federal Justice of the Peace decide admonished prosecutors for “utilizing the immense energy of the federal government to pursue weak circumstances or to make examples with out ample trigger” — DOJ introduced costs towards McIver, who briefly pushed a regulation enforcement officer who was making an attempt to succeed in Baraka away from her and mentioned “get your arms off of me.”
At this level, there’s not sufficient public details about the Lucas investigation to know if the potential costs towards her are as a lot of a non-starter because the Baraka arrest, or whether or not she really dedicated a criminal offense that’s worthy of prosecution. However given this Justice Division’s previous conduct, and Blanche’s conduct particularly, there are good causes to doubt whether or not Lucas’s workplace would have been raided if anybody aside from Donald Trump had been president.
