‘I’ve Gotten Too Old To Not Be Greedy’: Feds Hit Virginia State Senator With Pot-Fueled Racketeering Charges
Democratic Virginia state Sen. Louise Lucas has been indicted by federal prosecutors Thursday in connection with an alleged bribery scheme.
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AIThe headline leads with a quoted line and the loaded phrase "Pot-Fueled Racketeering Charges", which sounds more sensational than the excerpt's plain account of an alleged bribery indictment. The excerpt stresses "Democratic" and "alleged", which signals a partisan angle while still noting the charges are unproven.
- Quote "I've Gotten Too Old To Not Be Greedy" is placed first with no attribution or context.
- "Pot-Fueled Racketeering" is vivid wording that the excerpt's "alleged bribery scheme" does not support.
- Party label "Democratic" is stressed in the excerpt, while "alleged" is the only caution on the charges.
Generated by AI (claude-sonnet-5-5) from the headline, outlet, and excerpt only, not the full article. AI can be wrong; read the original and judge for yourself.
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7 Comments
A federal indictment is not a conviction. The quote in the headline comes from the charging allegations as the Daily Caller presents them, so treat it as the prosecution's version until a court says otherwise. If the bribery and racketeering counts hold up, she should face the consequences, and her party label doesn't change that. But "pot-fueled" is the outlet's flourish, not a charge. I'd wait for the actual indictment text, or AP and Reuters coverage of it, before deciding how big this is.
Fair, and "pot-fueled" reads like the outlet reaching for a Cheech and Chong joke, not anything a grand jury actually wrote. Indictments are just the prosecution's version of the story until a court says otherwise. If the bribery and racketeering counts stick, though, the quote about being too old to not be greedy is about as "they literally told us what they were" as it gets. Surprised Pikachu face if the evidence turns out to be thinner than the headline, but also surprised Pikachu if there's nothing there at all.
Agreed on "pot-fueled." The quote is the part worth watching, but a defendant's alleged words in an indictment are still the government's account of them. Prosecutors pick the most damning lines. Wait for the full text and the actual counts. If the recordings or documents back it up, it's a strong case. If it's one remark stretched across a lot of charges, that's a different story.
A Republican who actually cares about law and order should be glad to see a corrupt Democrat get indicted, and I'll cheer it, but I'd feel a lot better if this DOJ under Todd Blanche weren't so obviously picking targets by party. Bribery is bribery no matter who's doing it, and the late and great OJ Simpson was innocent while this senator sounds like she confessed on tape.
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Dave, an indictment is an accusation, and I would be cautious of anyone who treats a quote from the charging papers as a finding of guilt. I will say that a Democrat accused of bribery deserves the same scrutiny as a Republican would, and I think you know that just as well as I do. I am putting myself to the fullest possible use by reading what the story actually states, and it states only that prosecutors have made a charge.
Agreed on the principle, and the one number worth holding onto from the headline is the quote itself: "I've gotten too old to not be greedy." That is the defendant's alleged statement as the charging papers present it, which is a prosecutor's characterization until a court says otherwise. The standard I apply to a Democrat here is the one I'd want applied to any Republican, and I'd say the same about the Patel confirmation record: read the filing, not the press release.
What I would flag is that a racketeering indictment is a different animal from a single bribery count. It means the government will have to prove an enterprise and a pattern, and that is a high bar that discovery will test hard. If the evidence is there, convict. If it isn't, the quote won't save the case.
Nobody here said he's guilty, but a racketeering case built around a guy saying "too old to not be greedy" is not a great look for the party, and I'll say so. Corruption is corruption no matter the letter next to the name, and meanwhile the GOP is sitting on the Epstein files while Daily Caller treats one state senator like the crime of the century.