Attorney General Jeff Sessions plans to ramp up asset forfeiture, where police take stuff from citizens
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Monday that he intends to issue "a new directive on asset forfeiture," a controversial practice that allows law enforcement agents to seize and keep cash and property from people suspected but not charged with a crime, typically drug trafficking. The practice has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, after several egregious cases of apparent abuse, but Sessions said he intends to increase asset forfeiture by federal officials and help local law enforcement step around growing state restrictions.
"With care and professionalism, we plan to develop policies to increase forfeitures," Sessions told the National District Attorney's Association at a conference in Minneapolis, according to his prepared remarks. "No criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime. Adoptive forfeitures are appropriate as is sharing with our partners."
The idea that criminals shouldn't get to keep the fruits of their crimes is pretty uncontroversial, notes Christopher Ingraham at The Washington Post. But in most states, law enforcement agencies have wide latitude to seize assets from people charged with no crime, for sometimes suspect reasons, and they often get to keep the cash they seize. The "adoptive forfeitures" practice Sessions specifically backed on Monday, curtailed by his predecessor Eric Holder, allows authorities in states that limit asset forfeiture to use the more permissive federal rules then share the proceeds with federal agencies.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Thirteen states now allow forfeiture only in cases where there's been a criminal conviction," Robert Everett Johnson at the Institute for Justice, a public-interest law firm, tells The Washington Post. "This is a federalism issue. ... The Department of Justice is saying 'we're going to help state and local law enforcement to get around those reforms.'" Asset forfeiture is lucrative for local, state, and federal agencies — in 2014 federal officers seized more property from Americans than burglars did, for example, and the DEA has taken more than $3 billion in cash from people never charged with a crime since 2007, according to the Justice Department Inspector General. States have seized many millions more.
For a primer on the practice and the controversy of civil asset forfeiture, you can watch John Oliver's mildly NSFW, slightly less-than-objective 2014 report below. Peter Weber
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
5 deliciously funny cartoons about turkeys
Cartoons Artists take on pardons, executions, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Crossword: November 23, 2024
The Week's daily crossword puzzle
By The Week Staff Published
-
Sudoku hard: November 23, 2024
The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
By The Week Staff Published
-
DOJ demands changes at 'abhorrent' Atlanta jail
Speed Read Georgia's Fulton County Jail subjects inmates to 'unconstitutional' conditions, the 16-month investigation found
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
China tries to bury deadly car attack
Speed Read An SUV drove into a crowd of people in Zhuhai, killing and injuring dozens — but news of the attack has been censored
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Menendez brothers may go free in LA prosecutor plan
Speed Read Prosecutors are asking for the brothers to be resentenced for the 1989 murder of their parents
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Abercrombie ex-CEO charged with sex crimes
Speed Read Mike Jeffries ran the brand during its heyday from 1992 to 2014
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump criminal trial starts with rulings, reminder
Speed Read The first day of his historic trial over hush money payments was mostly focused on jury selection
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Parents of school shooter sentenced to 10-15 years
Speed Read Jennifer and James Crumbley are the first parents to be convicted in a US mass shooting
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Unlicensed dealers and black market guns
Speed Read 68,000 illegally trafficked guns were sold in a five year period, said ATF
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Bankman-Fried gets 25 years for fraud
Speed Read Former "crypto king" Sam Bankman-Fried will report to federal prison
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published