Civil Asset Forfeiture

CBS News:

"Civil asset forfeiture is a key tool that helps law enforcement help defund organized crime, prevents new crime from committed and weakens the criminals and cartels," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Wednesday announcing the revived DOJ policy.
Sessions said these seizures help weaken criminal organizations by taking away their funding, returning property back to victims of crime, as well as give funds back to law enforcement officials by allocating the assets toward new vehicles, vests and police training.
"Funds being used to take lives are now being used to save lives," said Sessions.
CBS News' Paula Reid reports that 24 states have passed laws limiting the practice, but local law enforcement can get around those restrictions by giving seized assets to the federal government instead of returning them to their owners. This practice is called "adoption" and it's been used to seize almost $1 billion in assets over the last decade.
In an off-camera briefing on Wednesday with reporters, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended the forfeiture practice as a way to empower law enforcement. This new policy allows local police to seize property even from people not charged with a crime. About 20 states have reformed the practice and said that assets can only be seized with an indictment or conviction.
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As if the country with more people incarcerated than any other on earth needs its law enforcement to be more empowered. Now former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions will advance the cause of government theft from some other position.

His interim replacement, Mathew G. Whitaker:  While US Attorney, Whitaker served on the Controlled Substances and Asset Forfeiture Subcommittee of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee, a group of 30 United States Attorneys across the country focusing on the Department of Justice's efforts against drug trafficking. Additionally, he was a member of the Violent and Organized Crime Subcommittee and the White Collar Crime Subcommittee of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee.

We don't know for sure but it's possible that Whitaker will also have an enthusiasm for confiscating the property of Americans without charging them with any crime.