Blunt Questions Over VA Lawmaker’s Arrest

Election night, with so much at stake, for trusted election results in real time, America turns first to ABC News and David Muir. "We'll be right here with you as the results come in." Election night, starting at 7 Eastern, on ABC. It's Friday, October 23rd, and if it's true, this is a high crime. We start here. A prominent Virginia Democrat is charged with running a marijuana trafficking scheme. That they basically describe as akin to a mob operation. Now, just ahead of the midterms, the DOJ is fielding some blunt questions about the timing. If you think President Trump is focused on election day, imagine Benjamin Netanyahu. "Some are calling it the most fateful election in Israel's history." Sources describe new potential attacks on Iran, but when? And it's why in a clock, nowhere. "My company, we're able to pivot and go to almonds, walnuts, we do cherries as well." Why more and more vineyards say sales are plummeting. From ABC News, this is Start Here. I'm Brad Milky. Traditionally, the US Justice Department has a rule of thumb. Don't bring charges against a politician just before an election day if you can at all help it. There's actually an unofficial policy about this, prosecutors call it the 60-day rule. That's not to say politicians don't commit crimes, right? The problem, though, is that voters don't get an appeals process. If everyone sees you arrested and then goes off to vote, then you're found innocent later. Well, was an election just swayed without prosecutors meaning to? We saw this question play out in 2016. James Coney talked about his struggle with how and when to say he was even investigating Hillary Clinton. "The norm is, if you can avoid it, you take no action that might have an impact on an election. And I can't see a door that's labeled no action here." Well, under the new Attorney General Todd Blanche, this Justice Department has had seemingly less qualms about publicizing last-minute investigations about political officeholders. Omar denouncing the search today as a "attempt to target political enemy." Earlier this month, the DOJ carried out a search warrant at the home of Congress woman Ilhan Omar, a move she says was designed to delegitimize her and the eyes of voters. Well, then, yesterday in Virginia, another prominent Democrat was arrested on astounding charges that she, an 82-year-old grandmother, who's behind a marijuana trafficking ring. Now, she is not running for election this November, but the timing of the election, the fact that she has been a vocal critic of President Trump. That's always the question, is this about illegal drugs? Was this all about smoke and mirrors? ABC's Alex Malin covers the Justice Department. He's been tracking this. Alex, who is El Luis Lucas and what is she being accused of? Yeah, El Luis Lucas has actually been in politics in Virginia throughout the state system for roughly 30 years, Brad. And she's been elevated in recent years to some of the most powerful fights that have occurred out of that state legislature. We were not more than that anyone till the system without response. Most recently, she became the face of the redistricting movement in that state. In efforts to Jeremy Mander, essentially an advantage of Democrats, which we saw controversially was thrown out by that state's supreme court in advance of the midterm elections. And she came under criminal scrutiny by the Justice Department actually during the Biden administration, because she had established as part of an outside job, a cannabis dispensary that essentially marketed hemp-based products. Now, those are legal in Virginia, but essentially this indictment says that investigators began testing some of the products and were alerted to the fact that it was actually testing positive for marijuana and more potent forms of marijuana. And that led investigators to then really dig down deep into her business activities. And that's what they alleged in this indictment. The indictment alleges that Senator Lucas approved and directed criminal activities and other activities to benefit the affairs of the Lucas Enterprise. A more large-scale trafficking conspiracy that they basically describe as akin to a mob operation involving bribery, involving her using her official office to advance her business, basically pushing forward legislation that would have given her more profitable position in her business, and then using her position to clear some of the officials that she had worked with in this business to basically give them licenses to be able to sell these projects. The Department of Justice intends to prove that Senator Lucas violated the trust of the people of Portsmouth and Chesapeake, Virginia and of her State Senate colleagues. It's actually a very complex conspiracy that's alleged and put forward in this indictment against Eloise, two of her daughters and a grandson as well as three other individuals who were part of this indictment that was unveiled yesterday by federal prosecutors in Virginia. But what they accused Luis Lucas of and they actually did tap her phones we were learned in this indictment for a period of roughly two months, and they got her on a recording allegedly saying at one point that she wanted to use this opportunity to create quote generational wealth for her family and that she believed that she was old and it was time to quote unquote get greedy. And you mentioned the age, Alex, 82 years old. Do you cover and throw in the back of a family? How are the actual taking her in a custody playout? Yeah, so yesterday we learned that she was actually informed of this indictment. She was able to just self surrender. They did not seek to arrest her. They did arrest several of the other defendants that were charged as part of this indictment. They appeared in federal court later in the afternoon in Norfolk, Virginia. None were able to enter please because this was not an arrangement appearance for them. But we do expect they will plead not guilty to all these charges. We heard from Luis Lucas in a statement basically describing this as a political effort by the Trump administration to target her. And she's basically described this as a baseless prosecution, Brad. Well, and so that's the question, right? Was this just a straightforward FBI investigation into alleged drug trafficking? Or was this political, right? So how did as the DOJ respond to that? Yeah, I mean, obviously the fact that we understand from both sources and by Attorney General Todd Blanche at yesterday's news conference saying that this investigation did have genesis in the Biden administration. We don't do political paybacks. That's not this investigation has been going on long before the US attorney. The first assistant started her job long before I started my job here and long before director Patel became the FBI director. It started long before President Trump was reelected. But obviously the big question here was the timing of this. As you note, the idea that just, you know, less than two weeks before the election, you have the attorney general of the United States and FBI director going to a news conference in Norfolk Virginia to announce charges that despite the fact that Louise Lucas did have some national profile, really is a more local level indictment in the style of this and what we read. This is not something that is a really national issue and it is, you know, kind of a complex case that we, you would not normally see the attorney general ever put himself on camera for. That's interesting because yeah, I was going to say you can make the case. She's not running for election. Virginia does the off-year thing. So it's not like we're two weeks out from her re-election. And yet by bringing out the key members of the Trump administration to make these announcements, you're almost, you're really broadcasting this to not just Virginia, but like to Americans across the country who are about to go to the polls and make a choice between Republicans and Democrats. Exactly, Brad. And when you mentioned the 60-day rule, that actually came up in this news conference with the attorney general Blanche yesterday because Louise Lucas's daughter is part of this indictment. And she actually is an active candidate running for a statewide elected office. 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 the part of the Justice Manual. The Justice Manual speaks very clearly about what the Department of Justice can and can't do. And we cannot bring a charge if our purpose is improper. And he said that that really only applies when prosecutors are quote-unquote intending to influence an election. He said that that is in no way what they are intending to do with this particular indictment. And he also answered as to whether the search of Congresswoman Ilan Omar's home. We don't talk about searches. Searchers are covert, they're not overt. And yes, and this became overt because of the circumstances around the search on Monday. Though it really kind of stands to test that because we understand that Fox News did have cameras outside her residence immediately upon the start of that search. And so obviously, all of these accumulating actions that are happening with the Justice Department leading up to the election, it's obviously going to raise more questions that perhaps congressional Democrats, if they take the majority, will be better positioned to put to top officials like Todd Blanch and Caspatel, if they get positions of oversight following the midterms. Right, a really shocking case playing out here, regardless of sort of what you think the motivations are behind it. Shocking either way. Alex Malin, thank you so much. Thanks Brad. Next up on Start here, President Trump said he was done hitting Iran until the midterm as well as we just discussed. That's coming up real quick. More on the other side of the break. Today, I want to tell you about our friends at Leyla Sleep. When you work night times, producing a daily morning news podcast, you come to really appreciate the value of a good night's sleep. So I'm excited to tell you about Leyla, one of the best mattresses on the market and also one of the most affordable. It's innovative, flippable design offers something for everyone, because there's a soft side and a firm side, so you can choose what experience you prefer. It's infused with copper, which offers a cooler, cleaner night's sleep. And with motion isolation and pressure relief, you can count on being able to sleep through the night. No 2 a.m. wake-ups, because your partner got up for a drink of water. [BLANK_AUDIO] There are two mattresses to choose from here, hybrid or memory foam, both are ultra comfortable and with this unique deal they come at an unbelievably good price. So if you're ready to take your sleep to the next level, head to abcsecretsavings.com/starthere to get free shipping and 40% off, with that discount you can get the hybrid mattress starting under $700 or the memory foam mattress under $400, considering that a good night's sleep is priceless. You can't ask for a better deal, but don't wait the discount is only good for a limited time, head to abcsecretsavings.com/starthere and start sleeping easier today that's abcsecretsavings.com/starthere. It's become hard to ignore how much the Iran war is weighing on President Trump's popularity these days. Last night he flew to Iowa, usually a reliably deep red state to offer a boost to GOP candidates there and he's been adamant the US is not planning the strike Iran before the midterms. He says it's because Iran will have a different outlook on negotiations once Republicans manage to stay in power, but it could also be that he doesn't want to send oil prices surging any higher than they already are before Americans go to the polls. But while you can see how domestic politics might play into this foreign war, US politics aren't the only ones that play. Israel is involved in this too and guess what, Benjamin Netanyahu is facing an election even sooner than we are. He's got very different motivations here and yesterday we sort of saw this come to a head as sources told us Israel and the US are considering resuming strikes in Iran. The question is, when would those strikes even happen? Let's go to ABC's foreign correspondent Jordana Miller who's based in Jerusalem, Jordana. Are we about to strike Iran again? Well, Israeli sources have told us that the US and the Israeli defense forces, the IDF, have drawn up plans to renew strikes against Iran. And the timetable seemed to be after the midterm elections. Now, I don't think that should really surprise us, Brad, because we've heard the President and the Israeli Prime Minister threaten to go back into full-scale war over the last several months. We're going to win. We have no other choice. Whenever the President gets very frustrated with Iran, he mentions the military opposition. And he has kept it on the table. Do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? We always have to ask why now? Why were sources willing to leak this story at this moment? And I think for the President, it may serve as a kind of pressure on Iran to come back to the negotiating table and offer some real steps towards -- Like, hey, this is all -- this is only going to get worse after midterms, you guys. Right. But also to come back and give the President what he wants, which is a commitment by the Iranians to curtail their nuclear weapons program. I believe we'll make a deal right after the election, because it doesn't make sense for them not to. To agree to know or very low enrichment levels, to take apart those nuclear facilities, to allow inspectors in and Iran for months and months, they have not budged. And even just a few days ago, we heard Iran's President say, hey, we're not going to do anything unless the U.S. meets all of our demands. So for the President, this story serves to put pressure on Iran and, I think, to keep Iran on its toes and keep it guessing as to what he may do next. Then what is going through the mind of Benjamin Netanyahu? Because I think it's very easy for Americans to forget. Netanyahu is facing an election on Tuesday. Jordana, this is the first one since October 7th. This is a huge moment for Israelis. It is. I mean, some are calling it the most fateful election in Israel's history. It's just a few days away. And Netanyahu is in a very, very tight race. His block of right-wing parties is tied with those in the opposition that are made up of centrist and left-wing parties. And in many polls over the last week or two, he's actually fallen behind by one to four seats. And so we've really seen Netanyahu out across Israel, across Israeli media, really trying to get his base out to vote. This kind of a story that, you know, the U.S. and Israel have another plan to attack Iran, it really feeds into his central campaign issue, which is Iran is still a formidable enemy. There's only one way, only one way to end this. And that is to overthrow this regime. He says we were able to really hit Iran, but the job isn't done, and we need to finish it. We need to bring the regime down. And, you know, Netanyahu touts his close relationship with Trump. And this leaked report that there are already military plans on the table to renew strikes. And so in this way, Netanyahu is hoping voters will say, oh, for our security and our safety, we need to vote for Netanyahu, and he's close with Trump and Trump's on our side, et cetera, et cetera. So it absolutely serves Netanyahu, too. But that's a thing so that it's important, I think, for Americans to understand that, well, Trump might not want to highlight the Iran war right now, Netanyahu then very much would want to, I assume, then. If his whole message is like, hey, I'm the guy at the helm during this crucial moment for Israeli national security. That's right. He's been putting the Iran threat in the center of his campaign. I mean, part of that, Brad, is so that he doesn't have to talk about the failures of October 7th, because his opponents are crafting their campaign around Netanyahu's utter failure, not only on October 7th, but his whole leadership. The decade before October 7th, and all of the miscalculations and misreading of Hamas, he led Israel's policy on Gaza right up until the day of the very deadly surprise attack. And to, you know, to kind of push that issue aside, he's been focusing on Iran. All right. And President Trump, of course, is sort of making his alliance known in this foreign campaign, as well. Jordan and Miller, thank you so much. Often, when we talk about the jobs picture, the numbers are kind of less dramatic than I'm imagining. Like last month, the biggest increase in jobs in America came from the health sector. It was 17,000 jobs, construction, 11,000. Part of this is why the jobs report itself was disappointing, economists had hoped for bigger numbers than that, but it also just shows you how specific everyone's careers are. Not spend a lot of time thinking about plastics and rubber manufacturing, but that was one of the biggest job drivers of September. Well, recently, several of California's famed wine vineyards have been cutting back on production, that rarely do people cry for wineries, but some of their reasons are beginning to sound awfully familiar in lots of industries, and suddenly, that concern doesn't sound narrow at all. ABC's Alex Stone is based in LA, Alex, are you like a big fan of cabsabs and you got a whiff of a story? What happened here? You know, I'm all about the pino, I grew up in Sonoma County, that's a huge area for wine, Sonoma, and half a county, so yeah, but this is a really big problem for the wine industry, and they've been watching it over a number of years, where the concern has been, uh-oh, people are not drinking wine as much, and then we hit the pandemic, and there was a spike in people drinking. It's happy hour, I sure can use a drink, and I bet you could too, it's been a long week, hasn't it? Back to the rosé all day, and the memes online, and the videos online. Probably the best way you can test yourself is take a glass of wine, or beer, or whiskey, and then if you can smell it, you probably don't have COVID. Mom's drinking chardonnay to deal with their kids who were in school, and the dad's drinking the red wines at night. I mean, all the cliché stuff, but the pandemic ended, and the wine industry saw the numbers that were already going down before the pandemic, then just plummet as people were staying away from drinking wine. There was a Gallup poll that came out a couple of weeks ago that showed that drinking remains at an all time low. The numbers just continue to go down, and the numbers have not been this low, even going back to prohibition. Wow. They haven't seen these types of numbers, and then you add to it that industry data shows a wine sales are at a 20 year low, but the farmers, as we've been out in the vineyard, of Lodi, south of Sacramento, they say that this is far worse than anybody knows. The sales of grapes have become a lot more difficult. Tell me what it's like. Yeah, it's a really difficult task right now. Younger generations are not drinking, older generations are aging out of it and, I mean, unfortunately, they're dying off those who were drinking wines in the 80s and 90s and that the sales are just plummeting right now and they're in a lot of trouble. You know, we have crops that were growing and we're hoping that we can, you know, sell them to the wineries and when you go to sell them to them, you know, they're just giving you a really low number for it. Why is that, Alex? I mean, what are the, I've heard about climate change impacting vineyards themselves, but you're talking about people's habits. They think there are several things to play here. One is that younger consumers are just drinking less overall and the belief is that all of the social media and online stuff that you see now that drinking will give you cancer and that it's, that even one drop is a problem that that's going to be an issue. The argument that says one drop of wine is like poison, don't ever touch this stuff. That may be true for some people, but it's probably not true as a general health advice. We talked to a professor at UC Davis who he is an expert in agricultural economics and he says what we are seeing is a cultural shift that is going on right now. Also things happen as people get older so that young people may not drink much wine when they're young and then a little bit later start drinking wine. It seems not to be happening as much with this generation, but it may yet and they're going to other things marijuana, especially here in California, you know, California sober, the saying where you don't drink, but you might take gummies on a Friday night or a Saturday night or any night of the week, I guess. The other thing is the farmers, we talked to several of them who said they believe GLP ones are playing a major role in this as well. The people do not want to drink if they're on a GLP one and so many people are taking them now that they think that is also playing a role. Why would that be? Is it because they're sugar or like I know, I know GLP ones have kind of upended the chocolate industry because people are eating less chocolate. Is that the same idea here? There are some studies that show that if you're on a GLP one that you don't crave alcohol any longer or you crave it less and that there are gastrointestinal issues that go on if somebody is drinking. So all of that could be coming into play, but there were other things too. Baby boomers led the wine-drinking era, you know, it was seen as a status symbol to have a dark wine with a steak. They're aging out and they have not been able to get younger consumers to want to choose wine. You think of when you're watching a football game, it is ads for beer, for celtsers, for whiskey. "Playing the long game because perfect moments don't just happen." It's guys on the horseback and you know, it's tough and all that. What image does wine have and the industry here in California says that they know that they need to improve their image and they don't know how to do it really. They're not coming together as one group. Some believe that there need to be changes in the laws. Some believe it's a different advertising. Some believe it's getting the message out there in other ways, but that they need to change the image of what wine is so a younger consumer wants to choose it. So what happens to these vineyards in the meantime? Is wine famously like one of the most expensive things to grow that needs like very, very specific care? So what happens to these? I mean, these are farmers basically. These are farmers and you know, they go by grape growers, but they say look, they are really just farmers and so what they are doing now, we actually went into some of the vineyards or what were vineyards where they have ripped them out and they are planting other crops. You know, like my company, we're able to pivot and go to almonds, walnuts, we do cherries as well. You think wine and big wine companies and wine makers, a lot of these vineyards are owned by families and they have done it for many decades and they are going out and they are ripping them out now, putting in olive trees to make olive oil because they think long term that the health interest in olive oil is going to be more than wine. But the other thing is that like you said, guys are just, you know what, the hell with it. They're thrown up the white flag and they're listening for sale. I've got family up in Mendocino County that they have grown grapes for many, many decades in generations, they just rip them out for this reason. They are raising goats now. They're doing all kinds of things because they're leaving grapes on the vines this year. They cannot sell them. They're just going to die and fall off the vines and so in many cases, they're just ripping them out. Right. They're terrified of like becoming the tobacco fields, right, where it's like, oh, those were big to my grandpa, but not to me. The question is, how big are these shifts? Because they're seemingly changing very quickly, but how long will they last? Alex Stone, thank you. You got it, thanks, Brad. Okay, one more quick break. When we come back, wait, are some people not going on vacation just for the extra chores? One last thing is next. On October 19th, 2025, the Louvre became the backdrop of something straight out of a heist movie. Now nearly a year out, there are still critical questions to be answered. We're used to following heist in movies from the perspectives of the ever so glamorous and dangerous perpetrators, but when it happens in real life, the lines between good and bad guys aren't so clear. And even less clear is the fate of those French crown jewels. In this series, I'll take you inside the events of that day, like you've never heard them before, through the eyes of the people who lived them. I'll follow the investigation into how this could have happened, who could have been behind it, and then I'll join the international hunt for the Louvre Jewels. Heist at the Louvre, a new series from ABC Audio. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or your favourite podcast app, or subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts to listen ad free. Once the Hulu original series swiped right on the devil, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers to supply. And one last thing, I am a huge fan of a rental house vacation, especially in the autumn, right? You get to cook out the fire pits, the s'mores, the dishwashing. What's that you say? I had you until the dishwashing? Well, if you're not a fan of doing chores on vacation, this is a big week for you. A couple days ago, Airbnb put out a notice to hosts telling them they'd soon be prohibited from requiring guests to do a lot of so-called checkout chores. If you've ever done one of these rentals, you probably know what I'm talking about. You might be required to take out the trash, or put all the dishes in the dishwasher before you leave. Some even ask you to put the dishes back in the cupboards where they each belong. But that's created a lot of conflict over the years. Guests show up thinking they're in for some relaxing weekend, only to spend their final morning separating white and dark sheets for the washing machine or scrubbing pots, which is frustrating since many of these hosts are already charging an extra cleaning fee. Like, do you really need 125 bucks to clean this house when I'm done cleaning it? And are all those dollars even going to a cleaner anyway? I already paid a fat cleaning fee, which is outrageous sometimes, on top of being booking a place. Now, I only wanted to throw away the trash and do the dishes. Well, under Airbnb's new rules, you can no longer ask guests to do anything that will usually be expected of a professional. No more hauling trash, no more stripping beds. Airbnb says you can't ask for, quote, "reasonable help," like putting dirty dishes in the sink. And if you live in bare country, you could ask guests to put their trash bags in a bare proof bin. Perhaps most importantly, though, anything you do ask of a guest has to be disclosed on the website in advance. And this speaks to the broader question of why the company might feel the need to do this now. In recent years, Airbnb rentals have been accused of feeling unpredictable. Do I have this property to myself? Is another family in a guest house across the yard? Some owners treat customers like special guests. Others are threatened with fines by a pamphlet in the entryway. You don't really know until you show up, which is part of the charm, I guess. But it might not be great for the brand, especially when you're competing with a hotel where people just leave their rooms in diabolical condition. Some hosts are frustrated saying they need some basic courtesy to keep doing this at all, but in the debate over what is common courtesy and what's just exploiting fear of extra fees, there's a new standard for what feels like home. I don't actually see the huge issue with stripping the bed. Like, if I'm the next guest in the house, I want to know that that sheet was recently washed. So like, please, get that sheet in a watching machine somehow. Right here is produced by Jen Newman-Anthony Ali, Aaron Ferrer, Emily Schutz, and Vika Aaron Sinner. Ariel Chester is our social media producer, Josh Kohannis, director of podcast programming. I'm our managing editor. Thanks to John Newman, Terry Gimble, Aiman McNiff, and Katie Dendas. Special thanks this week to Danny New, Eric Strauss, and our intern Indra Dulla Saihan. I'm Brad Milky. I'll see you next week. In the 1960s, the federal government embarked on a huge experiment. It was groundbreaking at the time. The goal? To figure out the best ways to teach. They evaluated different philosophies of education. One approach stood above the rest. But a lot of people didn't like it. One educator is called the approach totalitarian. On the new season of Soul to Story, we investigate why. Follow Soul to Story in your podcast app. The new documentary film, Ketsai Wild Hearts, is now available. on Disney Plus and Hulu. The more we grow, and to Katzai, the more eyes that we have on us, we want to do everything for the fans. Our icons are what make Katzai iconic. Katzai, Wild Hearts, now available on Disney Plus and Hulu. Visit DisneyPlus.com/whatshiphonon for more information, terms applied.