This is why I want Sessions gone.. Not because of the Russian investigation. To me asset forfeiture is very bad. Especially if the accused is innocent.
As practiced, asset forfeiture is the presumption that an object has committed a crime, and is thus fair game. There is no Due Process, no accusation of crime, only an obvious possibility of larceny by the very people who are supposed to be guarding our rights. Violations of the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments abound.
In order to recover the seized property, the owner has to prove innocence, in demonstrating that the property seized was not used in, nor the fruits of, criminal activity, yet another perversion of the justice system. It is demonstrably far more difficult to prove a negative, and the cost of doing so (if possible) commonly exceeds the value of the assets taken, such cost able to be manipulated by the seizing authority through continuances and motions until the resources of the person seeking their property back are exhausted.
The system is patently unfair, and invites the guardians of Liberty and those entrusted to uphold the Law and keep the Peace to become little more than highwaymen.
If someone is found guilty of a crime under due process, then assets can be seized, constitutionally, and frozen while the matter is adjudicated (bad enough, as the accused might need those assets to provide a defense, but far closer to the spirit of the Bill of Rights and Due Process).
