The FBI searched the Virginia state Senate leader’s office on Wednesday as part of a corruption investigation, a person familiar with the matter said.
The search at Virginia Sen. L. Louise Lucas鈥檚 district office in Portsmouth comes after the Democrat helped lead effort.
The FBI said only that it was conducting a court-authorized search warrant in Portsmouth. The person who confirmed the FBI鈥檚 search was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
A message seeking comment was left on a cellphone for Lucas.
Though the exact nature of the investigation was unclear, the search comes as the FBI and Justice Department have opened a spate of politically charged investigations into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump.
Last week, for instance, the Justice Department with making a threatening Instagram post against Trump, an accusation that Comey — who for nearly a decade has drawn the president鈥檚 ire — has denied. A separate mortgage fraud case, ultimately by a court, targeted Democratic New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who had brought a major against Trump and his business.
The FBI and Justice Department have also provoked concerns among Democrats regarding ongoing election-related investigations, including the and other information from Fulton County, Georgia.
Amid a national, state-by-state partisan kicked off by Trump鈥檚 desire to aid his fellow Republicans, Virginia voters in April a Democrat-backed constitutional amendment authorizing new U.S. House districts. The plan could help the party win up to four additional seats.
Lucas has been a vocal leader of the effort.
鈥淲e are not going to let anyone tilt the system without a response,鈥� she said after voters approved the map in April. Trump, meanwhile, denounced the results.
let the referendum proceed but has yet to rule whether the effort is legal. The court is considering an appeal of a lower court judge鈥檚 ruling that because lawmakers violated procedural requirements.
Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But Trump last year to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. California Democrats reciprocated, and redistricting efforts soon cascaded across states.
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Associated Press writer Dylan Lovan contributed from Louisville, Ky.
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