Trump’s been livid about Sessions recusing himself from the Russia probe, and he’s said so publicly. This has created a rather thick atmosphere.
Sessions’ latest move may be designed to be intentional suicide. What on earth can Sessions be thinking?
Sessions has removed the ban on civil asset forfeiture in state’s that previously blocked the practice.
Its a wildly unpopular practice, with even conservative commentators decrying its clear conflicts with the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the US Constitution, which guard against the arbitrary denial of property rights by the government outside proper legal channels. A particularly egregious example was the 2015 seizure of $16,000 in cash from a 22-year-old black man by Drug Enforcement Administration officials, based on an evidence-less suspicion that the money was sourced from drug dealing. Similarly, a Philadelphia-area couple had their house seized by local law enforcement in 2014 on suspicion that their son may have been involved in the drug trade. Neither were ever even charged with a crime–still, officers were able to bar the family from their home.
“We need to send a clear message that crime does not pay,” US attorney general Jeff Sessions explained at a Justice Department event earlier today. “With this new policy, the American people can be confident knowing we are following the law and taking action to defund criminals, while at the same time protecting the rights of American citizens.”
A 2013 story published in The New Yorker highlighted just how easily civil forfeiture can be weaponized against the American citizens Sessions claims to be protecting. “Over the past year, I spoke with more than a hundred police officers, defense attorneys, prosecutors, judges, and forfeiture plaintiffs from across the country,” staff writer Sarah Stillman wrote. “Many expressed concern that state laws designed to go after high-flying crime lords are routinely targeting the workaday homes, cars, cash savings, and other belongings of innocent people who are never charged with a crime.” Abuse is only exacerbated by the fact that assets seized under civil forfeiture can be used to fund local police departments.
Today’s announcement is particularly troubling, as it indicates the Justice Department’s intent to steamroll state laws to further its reactionary criminal-justice policies. CBS News reports that 24 states have passed laws that restrict or prohibit civil forfeiture, but that local law enforcement can now circumvent these laws by relinquishing seized assets to the federal government, instead of returning them to owners—even those who have never been charged with a crime. Known as “adoption,” this strategy has allowed the federal government to take more than $1 billion in assets over the last 10 years.
Rolling back Obama-era protections against the practice is a strange place for the Trump administration to plant a flag. A number of prominent Republicans have voiced opposition to the move in recent hours, including California congressman Darrell Issa and Idaho senator Mike Crapo:
The idiotic Quartz has chosen to make this a race issue, which is ridiculous. My biggest fear when traveling from New York to Florida was not being robbed by some thug, I was much more fearful of being pulled over by the police and having my cash taken.
There are lots of examples of the police robbing citizens and race has no bearing on who gets pinched.
Sessions has been decimated in stature, in my eyes, with this problematic proclamation. Maybe he’s just naive and really thinks this policy targets people CONVICTED of crimes. But he can’t be that stupid.
He knows the police use this as a way of upgrading their clubhouse when they need the latest flat screen, and they seize property from people who they “suspect” of a crime.
Trump… do your thing.
This is unconscionable. Why are all of our favorite righties becoming lefties?
Dump him like yesterday’s rotting fish.
You’re FIRED…asshat!
YOU’RE FIRED!! I’m sorry to think it, but I don’t see him getting it done.
Man, oh man. I cannot figure this out at all.
Sessions spent so much time w/Trump during the campaign, it is impossible for him not to know Trump’s most intimate thoughts about how he wants to change things. At first I thought this was simply Trump allowing capable people run the ball AND do it according to Hoyle. But Trump’s comments, now, about Rosenstein as Deputy AG and neither he nor Sessions really knowing the guy? That sounds extremely peculiar. Jeeze Louise! The D’s hire their own family members for AG.
Someone convinced Trump he needs to observe D.C protocol; Trump gave it a shot and now, it seems, he’s seen and heard all he needs of that crap.
More ?????’s than answers. And we need some answers NOW!
Maybe Sessions was an establishment hack to begin with. Put there just in case Trump gained traction. Before they knew it, he won. And there Sessions is, right where they want him.
PDT has to be sure that when it’s time to fire Mueller for exceeding his authority, it will be done. He needs a hit man, not a weak sister. Sessions needs to scurry back to Alabama if he’s frightened.
When a government agency benefits from breaking the law, you can bet it will continue to do it.
You’re innocent until proven guilty!-unless the gov’t doesn’t feel like presenting evidence.
Jeff Sessions has been a real disappointment overall. Recusing himself when there was no valid reason was his first and largest mistake. Then allowing Rosenstein to appoint Mueller as “special counsel” perfectly aligning with Comey’s deceitful machinations was his second huge mistake (the fact that Comey fully intended for his BFF Mueller to be the “special counsel” would be enough to stop this nonsense in any honest assessment of the whole affair).
This latest move of asserting federal control over asset forfeiture and making it easier to do is not only wrong headed, but purely antithetical to reigning in federal power. Sessions seems to be under the mistaken notion that “law enforcement” is beyond reproach when more often than not, the entire “judicial system” has become nothing more than a corrupt form of legalized theft across the board from crooked cops to dishonest, self serving prosecutors to corrupt judges. Convictions of citizens (not criminal invaders) are far more important in this system than whether the accused are actually guilty of anything. The “system” doesn’t care whose lives are ruined as long as they can extract money and artificially inflate their “conviction rates” so they can unlawfully gain even more power.
A couple of months ago a local deputy sheriff was finally convicted and sentenced to a relatively light punishment for stealing money and drugs from people he stopped (asset forfeiture). He had done it for several years and the only reason he got caught was that he finally stole a large amount of cash from someone that fought against it after he only reported about a third of the money he “confiscated” on the reports (he threatened to arrest them for having “drug money” but the money was gained honestly and they proved it). He used the raw power of intimidation (committing crimes under the “color of law”) to scare people prior to that instance and nobody had even reported that he was doing it.
Sessions is just making it easier for scum like this deputy to commit their crimes against the citizens. That should be enough for Trump to fire him and replace him with someone that will fire Mueller (among other things) rather than let his corrupt, taxpayer funded, multiple conflicts of interest ass continue the witch hunt against Trump and the Americans that support rooting out the corruption in the DC swamp.
Sessions has been invisible. Now this. He was a strong, early Trump supporter who appeared to be a great pick for DOJ. He’s apparently been neutered by the permanent government and lacks the will to fight. We need fighters.
I guess there isn’t a living soul up there that you can put any faith in. One of the few, who I thought was a decent man, does this? He’s been hitting ms-13 hard so maybe it’s to do with that, still no excuse. I guess we’re just adrift.
As if there aren’t more pressing issues for the US Attorney General to address.
Lowbrow. Sessions has no ideas so he repeats mistakes from the past. He is the worst characterature of a goose stepping Republinazi with this adoptive forfeiture crap.
The Volstead Act, the War on Drugs, failures after failure.
Here is an idea Repube assholes, toss the fossil nazi and install someone who is both incorrupt and proconstitution.
A cop in St. John’s County in Florida was arrested just this week for stealing cash from motorists he stopped.
There are now several states passing recreational marijuana laws and allowing citizens to legally grow specified quantities in their homes/property. Will be interesting to see if asset seizures start increasing in these states.
No progress or even visible activity on pursing the Clinton crime family and doubling down on the failed “war” on marijuana. The guy is a fraud hiding behind the memes of the Nixon era.
Feels like obama is back in town.
This is really puzzling to me. Wish we had more details. Sessions was always so solid. He took alot of heat from McConnell over the years, removed from committee chairmanship etc. Somethings going on behind the scenes. I smell political blackmail. If he was gotten to then the criminal thugs are untouchable.
Even temporarily acting, “Attorney General Rosenstein” does not have a good ring to it.
Sing along! You know the tune
“That’s what drones are for”
After the Huntsman nod, maybe Lindsey Graham should take Sessions’ place. Keeping with the spirit of the 3D chess being played.
Boy, oh boy, then the Establishment will really be on the hook! Yep. Got it all figured out.
Want to pass an Executive Order? Pass one affirming that thugs with badges are still thugs and stealing innocent people’s money so you can buy some more military surplus isn’t how business is done in America.
I’m with organgrinder on this–I have always stood up for Sessions because he was standing up for this state. There were many times in the last few years, he stood alone against the senate. I promise you his reputation is impeccable so I don’t understand what is going on. I don’t have blinders on because I do see that he isn’t doing what he needs to do–so he needs to go. And now we have a mess in Alabama STILL trying to fill his empty seat.
Who would be a good replacement for Sessions? Nobody comes to mind that I would have the trust in. Maybe Cruz? it would be fun seeing him getting a little pay back. But I know people have reservations about him.
there is a petition (https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-civil-forfeiture) to eliminate civil asset forfeiture