Attorney General Eric Holder’s claim that a recent order would significantly reform property seizures is being disputed by a transparency advocacy group in a letter to a government watchdog.
“Administrative forfeitures are increasing exponentially, and are the most popular form of seizure by a wide margin,” said Cause of Action Executive Director Dan Epstein in a letter to Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
This type of seizure allows the government to claim property, including an unlimited amount of money, vehicles of unlimited value or property worth up to $500,000 a legal conviction, according to Cause of Action.
The nonprofit found that from 2001 to 2011, 70 percent of all seized assets fell under administrative forfeitures.
“There is little reason to think the numbers for the last two years are any different,” Epstein said.
Holder issued a Jan. 16, 2015, order that restricted criminal and civil forfeitures.
“With this new policy, effective immediately, the Justice Department is taking an important step to prohibit federal agency adoptions of state and local seizures,” Holder said. However, his directive did not include administrative forfeitures.
“The order fails to address the majority of federal seizures,” Epstein told Horowitz.
Holder’s order also ended adoptions, which are seizures by state and local police that are turned over to federal agencies. Yet, Cause of Action cited a Government Accountability Office report that found adoptions only accounted for 17 percent of equitable sharing in 2010.
“Therefore, GAO’s study suggests the order’s focus on adoptions may ignore the areas where the most significant civil liberties violations occur,” Epstein said.
Epstein encouraged Horowitz to audit the department’s forfeitures, though his office had already begun such work that will “examine the Department of Justice’s oversight of asset seizure activities.”
Additionally, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., reintroduced related legislation called the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration Act.
“The federal government has made it far too easy for government agencies to take and profit from the property of those who have not been convicted of a crime,” Paul said. “The FAIR Act will ensure that government agencies no longer profit from taking the property of U.S. citizen without due process.”
