Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D) said on Oct. 26 that she will not resign and will plead not guilty to the federal drug charges unsealed against her last week.
“Absolutely not,” Lucas told reporters in Richmond when asked whether she would step down.
Asked whether she plans to plead not guilty, she said, “Absolutely, I am not guilty.”
Lucas, 82, a Democrat from Portsmouth, spoke to reporters after a meeting of the General Assembly’s Joint Subcommittee on Tax Policy. She has served in the state Senate since 1992.
She is the chamber’s president pro tempore, presiding in the lieutenant governor’s absence, and chairs the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, through which all legislation with a budget impact must pass.
Asked to comment on the allegations, Lucas said she is not a victim but a survivor who has been fighting all her life and continues to fight.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, a Democrat, said in a statement after the indictment that Lucas has his “full support” as she defends herself.
He called the allegations serious and said she is entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Surovell said the case has been “driven by politics.”
He pointed to Fox News allegedly being tipped off before the FBI searched her office, and to Attorney General Todd Blanche having served as President Donald Trump’s personal attorney.
He also cited turnover in the leadership of the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia, where a federal judge ruled that Trump’s appointment of Lindsey Halligan to lead the office was unlawful.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger, asked on Oct. 25 whether Lucas should step down or lose her leadership posts, did not say.
She called the indictment’s allegations “extraordinarily serious” and said she would comment further in the coming days and weeks, according toa Virginia ABC affiliate.
Spanberger’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times on Tuesday before publication time.
A 45-page indictment filed on Oct. 22 in the Eastern District of Virginia charges Lucas and six others with racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and maintaining a drug-involved premises.
Blanche said at a news conference announcing the charges that Lucas approved and directed criminal activity to benefit what prosecutors call the Lucas Enterprise and supervised the laundering of proceeds from marijuana sales.
He also said Lucas “used her political influence to demand and accept a bribe and attempted to influence Virginia legislation for the benefit of herself and her family.”
FBI Director Kash Patel called Lucas “truly the epitome of hypocrisy for a public official.”
The case follows a May FBI search of Lucas’s hometown office and The Cannabis Outlet, a Portsmouth shop she helped open in 2021 that sells hemp and cannabidiol products.
Marijuana is legal to possess in Virginia, but recreational retail sales have not begun.
After the charges were announced, Lucas wrote on X that they were political and that she would not be intimidated.
Lucas has remained active at the Capitol since the indictment.
At the Oct. 26 meeting, she pressed for further hearings on repealing Virginia’s sales tax exemption for data centers, a priority she and Senate Democrats pushed during this year’s budget negotiations.
Virginia Senate Republican Leader Ryan McDougle did not respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times before publication time.
Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
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