FBI Misled Judge in Obtaining Warrant To Seize Hundreds of Safe Deposit Boxes

[Kamaji]

FBI Misled Judge in Obtaining Warrant To Seize Hundreds of Safe Deposit Boxes

New court documents show that the FBI planned for months to seize and forfeit property found inside safe deposit boxes in an L.A. raid under the pretext of doing an inventory.

ERIC BOEHM
8.19.2022

The FBI told a federal magistrate judge that it intended to open hundreds of safe deposit boxes seized during a March 2021 raid in order to inventory the items inside—but new evidence shows that federal agents were plotting all along to use the operation as an opportunity to forfeit cash and other valuables.

Federal agents failed to disclose those plans to the federal magistrate judge who issued the warrant for the high-profile raid of U.S. Private Vaults, a private business in Beverly Hills, California, that had been the subject of an FBI investigation since at least 2019. When the raid took place, the FBI also seems to have ignored limitations imposed by the warrant, including an explicit prohibition against using the safe deposit boxes as the basis for further criminal investigations.

Those details regarding the planning and execution of the FBI's raid of U.S. Private Vaults are now out in the open after a different federal judge ruled this week that the government could not keep those details out of the public record. As Reason has extensively reported, the raid on U.S. Private Vaults resulted in federal agents seizing and attempting to forfeit more than $86 million in cash as well as gold, jewelry, and other valuables from property owners who were suspected of no crimes. Attorneys representing some plaintiffs who are trying to recover their possessions interviewed the FBI agents who planned the raid, but federal prosecutors tried to keep some details of those depositions redacted.

The unredacted legal documents, filed in federal court on Thursday, show why the government was eager to keep those details under wraps. (Reason submitted an amicus brief in the case arguing that the redacted documents should be made public.)

In the affidavit submitted as part of the effort to obtain a warrant for the search, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Brown wrote that federal agents intended to merely inventory the contents of the seized safe deposit boxes. But the newly unredacted documents show that the FBI had drawn up plans months earlier to forfeit property from the boxes, and failed to inform the magistrate judge about those plans.

*  *  *

Source:  https://reason.com/2022/08/19/fbi-misled-judge-in-obtaining-warrant-to-seize-hundreds-of-safe-deposit-boxes/

[Kamaji]

But of course the FBI would never lie to get a warrant for a politically-motivated witch-hunt.  nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

[EdinVA]

And pence says we should not speak ill of the fbi... 

[mountaineer]

Yet we're not supposed to use the term "banana republic." Got it. 

[Kamaji]

And pence says we should not speak ill of the fbi... 

Yup.

[mystery-ak]

August 21, 2022
FBI affidavit misled a magistrate judge on a search warrant in plot to seize and forfeit contents of safety deposit boxes
By Thomas Lifson

In a case with a direct bearing on the search warrant issued on Mar A Lago, the March 22, 2021 FBI raid on a private safe deposit box operator in Beverly Hills, California just got even dodgier, according to court documents released by a different federal judge than issued the warrant. You may recall that the FBI raided US Private Vaults in Beverly Hills and seized the contents of boxes of people accused of no crimes.

Eric Boehm of Reason reports on the latest revelations that show a pattern of FBI abuse of magistrate judges for the purpose of obtaining search warrants that amount to fishing expeditions – a violation of the Fourth Amendment

    The FBI told a federal magistrate judge that it intended to open hundreds of safe deposit boxes seized during a March 2021 raid in order to inventory the items inside—but new evidence shows that federal agents were plotting all along to use the operation as an opportunity to forfeit cash and other valuables.

    Federal agents failed to disclose those plans to the federal magistrate judge who issued the warrant for the high-profile raid of U.S. Private Vaults, a private business in Beverly Hills, California, that had been the subject of an FBI investigation since at least 2019. When the raid took place, the FBI also seems to have ignored limitations imposed by the warrant, including an explicit prohibition against using the safe deposit boxes as the basis for further criminal investigations. (snip)

    As Reason has extensively reported, the raid on U.S. Private Vaults resulted in federal agents seizing and attempting to forfeit more than $86 million in cash as well as gold, jewelry, and other valuables from property owners who were suspected of no crimes. Attorneys representing some plaintiffs who are trying to recover their possessions interviewed the FBI agents who planned the raid, but federal prosecutors tried to keep some details of those depositions redacted.

    The unredacted legal documents, filed in federal court on Thursday, show why the government was eager to keep those details under wraps.

more
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/08/fbi_affidavit_misled_a_magistrate_judge_on_a_search_warrant_in_plot_to_seize_and_forfeit_contents_of_safety_deposit_boxes.html

[Killer Clouds]

The FBI is just a higher eschelon of the beloved Blueline Mafia. You must not talk about them for they are the law and therefore are above the law.

What a bunch of hypocrites.

[PeteS in CA]

Well, these were the same people who used a known fraud "dossier" in FISA court ...

[GtHawk]

And pence says we should not speak ill of the fbi... 

But is really speaking ill of the FBI if you are simply accurately describing them and their Brown Shirt tactics?

[Kamaji]

But is really speaking ill of the FBI if you are simply accurately describing them and their Brown Shirt tactics?

According to Pence it is, or, at least, that is what he appears to be saying.

[Smokin Joe]

But of course the FBI would never lie to get a warrant for a politically-motivated witch-hunt.  nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

Witch hunt, hell, we're talking a robbery that would have made the Brinks Bandits proud.

$86,000,000 in cash, gold, jewelry....

all of which can be reconfigured or is already untraceable.

[christian]

Nothing to worry about here, the evil Trump was vanquished, and the Biden and his cherished son, exalted to the heavens.  Where are the braggarts today bragging long and loud of getting us to where we are today?  Real Socialist utopia living, filling our government with Communists and radical muslim terrorists?  Or just outright thieves masquerading as honorable men wearing law enforcement uniforms?  Oh, yeah, how could i have forgotten, our soldiers fighting and defending us are the terrorists and murdering, raping, betraying, muslims must never be called terrorists, regardless of how many of us they murder, enslave, behead, etc.
How low the FBI went to get in bed in with compromised corrupt socialist Communists democrats.