Former Justice Department Officials Slam Asset Forfeiture

The Washington Post continues its barrage of coverage with an op-ed penned by two former federal officials. John Yoder, director of the Asset Forfeiture Office from 1983 to 1985, and Brad Cates, who directed the office from 1985 to1989, have written a stinging indictment of the modern forfeiture program.

Asset forfeiture was conceived as a way to cut into the profit motive that fueled rampant drug trafficking by cartels and other criminal enterprises, in order to fight the social evils of drug dealing and abuse. Over time, however, the tactic has turned into an evil itself, with the corruption it engendered among government and law enforcement coming to clearly outweigh any benefits.

The full op-ed can be read here. Yoder and Cates condemn the many changes made to the practice since the early days, including expanding the scope of property that could be forfeit, allowing law enforcement to keep and use recovered property, and the increasing number of crimes that can trigger forfeiture. They refer to modern civil asset forfeiture and money laundering laws as "gross perversions of the status of government amid a free citizenry" and recommend the complete abolishment of civil asset forfeiture.

Yoder and Cates really hit the nail on the head and pound it flat. Whatever noble intentions these laws were conceived with have been distorted and the amount of abuse this has led to is indefensible.