FBI Sends Second Wiretap Notice Tied to Virginia Senate Leader Louise Lucas Corruption Probe

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., has received two separate Justice Department letters this year informing him that his phone calls with Virginia state Sen. Louise Lucas were intercepted under court-authorized wiretaps. The second letter arrived this week, according to Subramanyam's office, cited by the Daily Signal.

The first letter, received in early July, covered calls between March 6 and April 5, 2026. The second, received in the days leading up to September 9, covered April 14 through May 14, 2026, according to Virginia Scope, which reported that a federal district court judge authorized the second interception order on April 13.

Both letters state that "all original recordings were sealed" by court order, meaning the calls were recorded and preserved, not just logged as metadata. Subramanyam's office told the Daily Signal he spoke with Lucas once during the first window and isn't sure how many calls fall within the second.

Who Else Got the Letters

Subramanyam wasn't alone. Virginia Scope reported that Kate Seltzer of the Virginian-Pilot and Brad Kutner of Radio IQ, both journalists, also received notification letters for both time periods. That means reporters covering Virginia politics were themselves recorded talking to Lucas.

Lucas, a Portsmouth Democrat, is the Senate's president pro tempore and chairs the Appropriations Committee. She's served in the General Assembly since 1991 and led budget negotiations with the House and governor in June, according to Virginia Scope. She has not responded to Virginia Scope's requests for comment on the second round of letters.

The Underlying Investigation

FBI agents searched Lucas' Portsmouth legislative office on May 6, along with a cannabis dispensary she co-owns next door, according to Virginia Scope. WJLA and Congress.net both describe the underlying probe as a bribery and corruption investigation, though no charges have been filed.

Two people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press, as reported by Congress.net, that the investigation into Lucas was opened during the Biden administration, not under President Trump. Southeastpolitics reported the same detail, attributing it to ABC 7 News, and noted it "contradicts claims that the probe was initiated as political retaliation by President Donald Trump." WJLA's report includes an identical line: "That investigation started during the Biden administration, sources also told 7News at the time."

Axios and indianewengland, by contrast, ran Subramanyam's allegations of political targeting without including that Biden-era origin detail anywhere in their coverage. The omission leaves readers incomplete on a fact directly relevant to his central claim. It doesn't disprove Subramanyam's broader complaint about how the surveillance was disclosed or timed, but leaving out who opened the case in the first place matters.

What Subramanyam Is Actually Saying

Subramanyam's argument isn't limited to who opened the file. He's pointing to timing: the interception periods overlapped with Virginia's redistricting referendum fight and with House Oversight Committee efforts to get Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify on the Epstein investigation. "The timing of this wiretap and investigation is extremely suspicious," he said in his statement, as reported by indianewengland.

He also said the DOJ made clear he personally is not a target. His calls were swept up because agents were surveilling Lucas' phone, not his. "Trump's DOJ has become his own personal law firm, with his former personal attorney carrying out vendettas on Trump's political enemies," Subramanyam said, per WJLA. He offered no documentary evidence establishing that political retaliation, rather than a continuation of the Biden-era investigation, drove the specific decision to seek wiretaps this spring.

A different FBI controversy predates this matter. Earlier this year, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called it "a modern Watergate" after reports that the FBI sought telephone toll records, call timing, duration and location data tied to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot investigation. The Daily Signal itself notes that program did not involve recording the content of calls. What happened to Lucas and the people who talked to her, including Subramanyam, is a separate and more intrusive step: actual recorded content, sealed by court order.

What's Unresolved

WJLA reported it remains "unclear if the May FBI raid and the tapped calls were immediately connected." The FBI has declined to comment to both the Daily Signal and 7News on why Lucas was being monitored or whether surveillance is continuing.

Subramanyam's office told the Daily Signal it isn't certain whether the monitoring is still active, since the pattern so far has been a three-month delay between each interception period and its disclosure letter. If that pattern holds, anyone whose calls were intercepted after May 14 wouldn't find out until sometime this fall. No charges have been announced against Lucas, and the Justice Department has not detailed the scope or status of the investigation publicly.