Government by Payback Squad

"On the morning of May 6, the FBI raided the office, and a clutch of businesses, belonging to an 82-year-old Virginia state lawmaker named L. Louise Lucas, the Democratic president pro tem of the Virginia Senate. FBI officials didn't disclose any court documents or charges to back up the raids; they haven't yet even indicated that Lucas was a principal target in this shadowy investigation."

"They didn't really have to. While some MAGA apologists have suggested vaguely that the probe into Lucas's affairs dated back to the Biden administration, one calendar date is clearly far more relevant: The raids came just two weeks after Virginia voters approved the redistricting referendum that Lucas had spearheaded-one that would have given Democrats four additional House districts in the recursive gerrymandering war launched by the Republican Party."

"Like other high-profile efforts from federal law enforcement to go after critics of the Trump model of authoritarian rule, the Lucas action was a show of force, intended to intimidate and frighten MAGA detractors everywhere; any legal rationale was strictly an afterthought-or perhaps more accurately, a half-afterthought."

"This mobilization of federal agents as enforcers of political orthodoxy is obviously yet one more indication of the country's broader slide into autocracy-yet it hasn't commanded sustained public attention, thanks to the very flimsiness of all these failed indictments and prosecutions. So many of these meritless operations have been tossed out of court or abandoned that they merge quietly into the burgeoning file of rank Trumpian incompetence, alongside fiascos like the president's "Liberation Day" tariffs crusade or his vibes-driven war on Iran."

FBI agents raided the office of L. Louise Lucas, an 82-year-old Virginia state lawmaker and Democratic president pro tem of the Virginia Senate, along with businesses tied to her. No court documents or charges were disclosed, and it was not yet clear whether she was a principal target. The timing closely followed a redistricting referendum Lucas spearheaded, which would have increased Democratic House districts. The raids are framed as a show of force meant to intimidate political opponents, with any legal rationale treated as secondary. The piece links such actions to a broader slide toward autocracy, noting many failed indictments and prosecutions that are dismissed or abandoned, while harassment campaigns accelerate and threaten the rule of law.

Read at The Nation