Far-left Democrat, Resistance hero, Virginia State Senate pro tempore Louis Lucas and her family were hit with a bevy of charges — including drug trafficking, money laundering, and racketeering — Thursday morning as part of a years-long criminal investigation into their family’s marijuana businesses.
When it came to the Thursday night network newscasts, ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News ignored it, while the CBS Evening News suggested the charges were politically motivated by President Trump’s Justice Department and similar to the ongoing federal investigation of Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi (D-MN) (aka Ilhan Omar).
Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil even had the Lucas indictment in the opening teases: “An 82-year-old state senator hit with criminal charges linked to a family-run marijuana business. What she is saying.”
The two-minute-and-two-second segment began with Dokoupil saying the “state senator is facing criminal charges, federal criminal charges tied to racketeering, drug trafficking, and money laundering, among other offenses,” and “accused of using her political power to protect a marijuana ring run by her own family.”
WATCH: The ‘CBS Evening News’ was the only one of the three broadcast networks to mention the DOJ indictment of Virginia Democrat Louise Lucas on charges including drug trafficking and money laundering.
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 23, 2026
However, they implied the case is politically motivated by the Trump Justice… pic.twitter.com/DNmu4YMeBF
With party ID still not having been established, CBS was off to a bad start. Homeland Security correspondent Nicole Sganga fixed it in her report: “One of Virginia’s most powerful Democrats, Louise Lucas, surrendered today, accused of leading a multi-million-dollar illegal marijuana enterprise involving her own family.”
Following a clip of Attorney General Todd Blanche declaring Lucas’s “alleged behavior” illustrated a picture of “put[ting] her own financial interests before the people she was elected to serve,” Sganga mentioned one of the incriminating messages, and the FBI raided her properties in May (which none of the broadcast networks mentioned on their lead shows):
Prosecutors accused the 82-year-old Lucas and six others of conspiring to distribute more than 220 pounds of marijuana, then launder the profits. In one alleged phone conversation, Lucas said, “I’ve got too old to not be greedy.” In May, the FBI searched Lucas’s Virginia office and cannabis business, recovering marijuana and firearms
But here was when the pivot was made to calling into question the prosecution’s validity.
Sganga said Lucas has been “an outspoken opponent of President Trump,” and compared the charges Thursday to having “[grown] up under Jim Crow.”
The supposed MAGA newscast at a network helmed by Bari Weiss then tied Lucas to the entirely unrelated case of the Minnesota congresswoman:
SGANGA: The charges come just ten days after federal agents searched the D.C. home of another Trump critic, Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, seizing her personal phone and documents, part of an ongoing investigation.
OMAR [on MS NOW’s All In with Chris Hayes, 10/21/26]: I’m confident in my truth. I’m confident in the fact that I didn’t do anything wrong.
The Lucas probe began under the Biden administration, but Sganga seemed to have left that fact on the proverbial side of the road.
Placing the two together, she concluded by further implying political malfeasance by the Trump Justice Department, facts be damned.
Lucas herself isn’t on the ballot, but CBS still felt like suggesting the 60-day rule applied because Lucas’s daughter is on the ballot for a local election:
SGANGA: Historically, the Justice Department has avoided pursuing sitting candidates within 60 days of an election. Not any longer, according to the attorney general.
BLANCHE: I mean, I think you’re referring to the 60-day or 90-day practice, which is not in writing. There’s no — that’s not part of the Justice manual.
SGANGA: Louise Lucas is not on the ballot this year, though her daughter is running for a local office. We are less than two weeks away from Election Day. But Tony, the attorney general insists that the timing of these charges is appropriate.
Instead of the Lucas story, ABC’s World News Tonight had a brief about a fight at a New Jersey township meeting where a mayor charged at a resident in attendance. Over on NBC Nightly News, they touted the new AirBnB policy in which hosts can no longer require guests to do chores before leaving, such as dishes or stripping bedsheets.
To see the relevant CBS transcript from October 22, click here.
