Sen. Rand Paul: ‘I Think Civil Asset Forfeiture Is a Terrible Idea Until You’ve Convicted Someone’

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” on Sunday that he thinks civil asset forfeiture – where police can seize, then keep or sell any property they suspect is involved in a crime regardless of whether or not the owner is arrested or even convicted - “is a terrible idea until you’ve convicted someone.”

“There was a discussion the other day in the White House about civil asset forfeiture. I think civil asset forfeiture is a terrible idea until you’ve convicted someone, and I’d like to have that discussion with the president,” Paul said.

Paul was asked how concerned he was that the Trump administration could expand surveillance powers given that Paul voted against the confirmation of Mike Pompeo to head the CIA, but voted for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to lead the Justice Department.

“How concerned are you that the Sessions Justice Department, the Pompeo CIA, the potential ODNI administration of Dan Coats are going to go back more towards the direction that you’ve been opposed for many years?” a reporter asked.

Paul said he was “very concerned, and while I do have some agreements with President Trump on less regulation, less taxes, replacing Obamacare, on surveillance we may not be – or on privacy – on the same wavelength. We’ll have to see.”

Paul said addressing the issue of civil asset forfeiture is important, because it unfairly targets poor people.

“I’ve had that discussion with Senator Sessions,” he said, referring to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was sworn in last week, “and I think some of the things we’ve done particularly to poor people—poor people in our country deal in cash more than wealthier people, and more than people who have their life better planned out who might deal with money in a different way.

“They have cash, and they walk around—doesn’t make them automatically guilty of a crime because they deal in cash, and so I think in order to take someone’s money from them, the government ought to prove that it was ill gotten,” Paul said, adding that the other side of that argument is “if someone’s caught with 50 kilos of some kind of drug and then there’s $50,000 in cash sitting there that somehow the people that are caught are going to get it back. That never happens.

“What we’re really, really talking about is people driving down the road, walking down the street…they just have their possessions taken from them without any kind of conviction,” he said.

“There’s a real danger, and there have been instances of up and down the country of little towns on the side of highways just pulling over everybody and just taking their money, almost like some sort of Robin Hood kind of scheme, so I do worry about that, and I will continue to stand up for what I feel is right no matter no matter whether it’s a Republican or Democrat in office,” Paul said.

Source

I say we contact President Trump here and here and tell him about asset forfeiture abuse and that we want him to oppose it. The more of us he hears from the better.

Support The Due Process Guarantee

From Rand2016:

There is only one way to describe detaining a U.S. citizen indefinitely and denying them a trial by jury: Un-American.

If the federal government can arrest you, throw you in prison for years, and strip away your due process rights to prove your innocence, our Republic is sliding into dangerous territory.

That’s why I’m introducing – along with Senator Mike Lee and others - the Due Process Guarantee to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

This amendment blocks indefinite detention of American citizens without being charged and denying them a jury trial unless there is a vote in Congress.

Will you stand with me in the fight against indefinite detention?

I’m running for President to defeat the Washington Machine on EVERY front.

Just last week, you and I took a step toward restoring the Fourth Amendment in my filibuster to end illegal NSA spying.

But now, our Sixth Amendment rights to a speedy and public trial are threatened by the indefinite detention language in the NDAA.

Some of my colleagues will claim we should “trust the government” because this power will never be abused.

I REFUSE to trust President Obama where matters of Constitutional principle are at stake.

Not when the Director of National Intelligence lies to Congress about the existence of the NSA’s illegal spying program and still has a job.

And not when the IRS targeted Tea Party groups for political harassment.

I believe you and I were endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights.

And those include the right to be free from an Orwellian policy that allows the government to toss American citizens in prison while denying them the ability to prove their innocence.

This is a fight you and I can win.

In 2012, a conference committee killed an amendment the Senate passed stripping the indefinite detention language out of the NDAA.

But after hundreds of thousands of Americans stood with me in my showdown with President Obama over illegal NSA spying, you and I proved the grassroots turning up the heat can push our government toward protecting the Bill of Rights.

A vote could come as soon as this week.

So I’m counting on your support right away.

Please add your name to my fight against the Washington Machine’s attack on due process by signing your “STOP INDEFINITE DETENTION” petition right away.

After you sign your petition, please chip in a contribution of $20.16 to help me mobilize a movement to defeat the Washington Machine by standing for the Bill of Rights.

The Washington Machine hasn’t given up attacking our liberties.

It’s up to you and me to defend them.

In Liberty,

Rand Paul