Bullet Points:
* The most interesting part about Martha’s Vineyard vs 50 Venezuelans story was the millionaires pushing a GoFundMe to raise a couple of thousand dollars for the illegal aliens and then keeping all the money for themselves.
* Gateway Pundit – DOJ/FBI said they seized 11,000 pages of documents. President Trump’s team says they seized 200,000 pages. The FBI left no inventory sheet behind as is required by law.
In a related story…
From Scott Adams
Ooops…
The Story: In the 2020-2021 timeframe the FBI “discovered” a private safety deposit box company, US Private Vaults operated like the FedEx store and let you rent a safety deposit box.
You filled out papers identifying the owner, paid the company a monthly rental, and used the service. According to the FBI, which lied in the affidavit, the company aided and abetted money laundering by allowing drug dealers to store money, “in stacks of $100 bills,” in their duly rented safety deposit box.
The FBI sought a warrant to search the premises and were clear they intended only to inventory the boxes for safekeeping. However, after illegally searching the boxes the FBI decided to seize any box with more than $5,000 value under civil forfeiture unless the holder of the box could prove the contents weren’t ill-gotten.
The FBI left no inventory sheets behind showing what they seized and from which box.
In a class action filed by the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm, the FBI planned the entire operation as a civil asset forfeiture shakedown, negotiating splits with the LA Sheriff’s department, the FBI, and the DOJ PRIOR TO SEEKING A WARRANT. A federal judge found that it was premeditated theft.
Multiple box owners have alleged they are missing items like antique watches, family jewelry, and collections of coins and have sued the FBI for their return. Some have already been sold at auction as a component of civil forfeiture since the owners couldn’t necessarily prove that inheritance taxes had been paid, etc.
US Private Vaults paid a fine for aiding in money laundering in the case of one box, but the FBI took the contents of ALL of them. Nobody knows how much of the contents were pilfered by individual special agents.
That Scott Adam’s a troublemaker.
What’s the pool on him getting Swatted?
I expect a Dilbert-joins-the-FBI series out soon.
He already has the right haircut.
Yes he does…maybe a little off the top.
I’m probably repeating myself, but I’m old enough for it to be expected.
My son got pulled over with $1000 on him, which was confiscated, never to be seen by him again.
Theft by law.
I don’t trust any LEO until proven otherwise. I assume the worst.
Smart.
To add to LL’s reply; sad but smart. I try to live under the radar when possible but sometimes that does not work and you just hope for an honest member of law enforcement.
MV proved these special people are all liars…their rules do not apply to them, only everyone else.
Now we have those at the highest levels operating as thieves and criminals and we’re caught in the middle. What does one do? We’re a bit hamstrung to effect a necessary fix. And I expect these dufuses to ramp up their criminal activity, along with the IRS, the Postal Service, DA’s, judges, WallStreet, and soon, banks, who will report anyone pulling THEIR money out of THEIR private account to “the appropriate authorities.”
Getting seriously jiggy with these bums, proving the tyranny rats are running rampant. But I do not fear them…because in the end, without their badge and weapons, underneath they are cowards because none of them have the stones to stand up to an immoral order.
The power of the state to regulate (to make regular) is not the power to abuse. In a number of cases that we see these days, the federal government in particular behaves lawlessly. I have seen them myself. And the states and counties, watching what the Feds do, figure it will work for them.
Executing a search warrant where there may be attorney-client privilege information REQUIRES the use of a Special Master. It becomes far more complicated when you are dealing with classified information that may or may not have been classified. I had lunch with a prosecutor yesterday and we discussed a lot of the illegal moves that the FBI made in the Mira-Lago raid. A legally executed search would have required half a dozen special masters and would likely have taken somewhere between a week and ten days to execute. Maybe longer. We discussed how one would go about managing the search in a legal context, which the FBI didn’t do.
The prosecutor, (a lifelong friend of mine – brother from another mother) who enjoys a stellar reputation for scrupulous honesty, thinks that the warrant, based on the affidavit – and he’s seen an unredacted version – was not relevant as to a number of components.
And if they can do it to Trump and get away with it, the rest of us could follow.
The FBI is above the law too…
It’s not hard to take all these “above the law” examples and realize that the “rule of law” is gone..
All too often, that’s the case.
Except for us Peon Subclass 2 folks.
The rule is “equal protection under the law” and that’s somehow lost on the Bureau of 2022. It’s all about the Constitution and an oath to support and defend it.
(Takes tin foil hat off shelf, puts it on)
LL I’m sure you are knowledgeable about civil forfeiture and it’s origin during the war on drugs. Hypothetically…
So I’m not using my credit card to purchase anything at my local gun store but I see something I have to add to my accumulation. I go to the bank and withdraw the appropriate amount of cash. Stopped by local cops, who just attended a “civil forfeiture “ class. They seize my money on whatever pretext is currently taught. I’m not arrested or charged in any way. It is now my burden to prove (by the preponderance of the evidence) that the money was legal.
Great way to discourage firearm purchases.
(Removes tin foil hat, returns to shelf)
Then there is the old jeopardy assessment. I don’t know if you were involved with those when you were in the business but this is how it works. You find cash or items of value which you’re concerned may have been obtained legally, but you still want to take them from the subject/suspect. If you have the IRS, along, the Special Agent (or even a revenue agent) can do a “jeopardy assessment” on the money or items of value. In California, for instance, the State Board of Equalization (taxing authority) can do the same thing. The cash, for instance, now is in the custody of the government and you must prove that you paid taxes on it, or they keep it. In tax court, the burden of proof is on the citizen, not the government.
Asking for assistance to help me work through this. Using cash to buy gun store items, doesn’t the dealer still have to put the buyer through the government “process” with verified ID, record the sale including the item details for his inventory accounting and tax purposes, etc. prior to completing the transaction?
Appears to me only difference in using a cc, is the addition of the cc company to the transaction details.
In either event, after buying such an item(s) take it with you next time you go fishing and or boating.
Regards,
Cletus Valvecore
You’re right, of course. However, after being run through a record check process in order to purchase a firearm many times, doesn’t it become somewhat moot?
The Canadians are doing a big firearm roundup this fall in the hope of forestalling another episode of civil disobedience. A disarmed society is a quiescent society.
Throughout the history of the world, free peoples bore arms and slaves never did unless they pulled a Sparticus move and defied authority.
I’m pretty sure Som ol leo wasn’t saying that it was the form of purchase, but the carrying of a large sum.
I just bought a pistol, a few hundred. No big deal.
But suppose I was buying a Barret. A few thousand. Get stopped with more than a thou in cash (like my son) and it looks “suspicious”. The cops can say “Better it was confiscated than let a drug deal go through (how much cash in large denoms is already ‘tainted’).”
They can operate with suspiciousness all they want, it’s not illegal to carry a large pile of cash. It may be unwise, but it’s not against the law…and it’s ultimately none of their business. The idea Americans have to even think about this shows how far authorities have overstepped, having succeeded in Pavlov’g the dog. Innocence before guilt and probable cause are still on the books last I checked.
Try taking $100K in cash through TSA at from LAX to JFK without having it seized by your government. TSA will flag it for DEA and IRS.
I’m not writing rhetoric here.
Oh, I’m sure..and I trust your voice of experience.
Yet, We The People (talking about the innocent folks) being subject to these agency increasing suspiciousness, based on “when you’re the hammer, everything is a nail” mentality, seizing someone’s cash without cause or justification is overstepping. Follow, build a case, then detain.
I’ve watched some of those customs shows, [dumb/desperate] people will try anything. But the innocent – as a general rule – should not be lumped in with them. Me, I’d never do that, EFT is a lot quicker and more readily available these days. So maybe the confiscatory incidents against the innocent will be significantly reduced, leaving only criminals.
Same deal with these “Knock, Knock…We’re here to verify your latest firearm purchase” crap, rules by them for them. It’s overstepping by a mile.
Years ago, $10,000 (for safety $9,999 was commonly used) could be brought through customs without serious issues of being confiscated. I’m certain that today even that amount would raise eyebrows with the airport feds. Don’t recall making any declaration. But even then some of the piss ants would question values of purchased items brought into the US. Had one entry where I had to pull receipts and insist the customs agent (a real jerk) look at ’em to bring him back to earth on his value estimate of items, and that was at IAH.
Cletus
There was no chain of custody for anything removed from Mar-a-Lago so I don’t believe anything they say about it. .
Everything else is just frustrating.
They ask you to trust them that Pres. Trump is guilty of something.
RICO, forfeiture, all that crap.
Completely unconstitutional from day one.
-Kle.
There is the famous Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization statute 18 USC 1962, with 35 predicate acts/crimes, there are state RICO statutes, all of which seem to be slightly different, and then there are the so-called civil RICO statutes, wherein you could sue your aunt Minnie for whatever, alleging civil RICO (not necessarily the same predicate acts involved).
Even though the RICO statute is used, it’s not used that often. Civil forfeiture is another matter completely where a fruit or instrumentality of a crime is alleged.
Kle, I would throw “qualified immunity” into the mix.
There are two kinds of immunity: Use immunity means that the government gives you legal immunity from certain things that you may say or have done, often in a quid pro quo. Transactional immunity means that you get a free pass for everything that you might have done or in some cases, may do. It’s not a “license to kill” as in the case of a Presidential Finding (lethal), which offers a different sort of immunity. Use and transactional immunity are matters for state and federal courts.
When I was undercover for two years in a difficult situation in a law enforcement role, I’d receive transactional immunity from a federal judge every Friday afternoon for the NEXT week. This is not common. The only other person that I personally know of who had this arrangement was my good friend, Commissioner David Chong (NYPD) (who was commissioner at White Plains NY after his NYPD career). I think that he’s retired now. He was undercover in the Ghost Shadows Gang in New York many years ago.
Friday — Freya’s day
It is from the Germanic frijaz meaning “beloved, belonging to the loved ones, not in bondage, free”. Freya (Fria) is the Teutonic goddess of love, beauty, and fecundity (prolific procreation). She is identified with the Norse god Freya. She is leader of the Valkyries and one of the Vanir.
From a google search, https://www.crowl.org/lawrence/time/days.html wrote it.
For an account of the FBI and the Cá độc ác gang in Little Saigon (Orange County, CA), I refer you back to comments from the blog “Boogaloo” from yesterday. You might find it interesting.
I have a friend, a criminal attorney, who worked his way through the U of Wyoming law school. We worked together for several years in the car biz while he was earning his JD. His advice to me, if approached by any Federal agency, is to respectfully refuse to engage in any, repeat any, conversation without your attorney present.
As an old geezer keyboard warrior with few assets, I’m probably too small a fry for them to bother with. If it does happen, I will heed his advice and hope he just charges me his brother-in-law rate.
Anyone in a legal jam in Northern CO should call Monte Robbins. He is very, very good at what he does and a man of integrity.
WSF, I too am an old pensioner and a retired nurse. Several years ago I was approached by an FBI team investigating a Medicare fraud case. I too told them I would not speak with them without an attorney present and since I really couldn’t afford one they were going to pay for it. They slyly mentioned Obstruction of Justice and I countered I was willing to talk but only an attorney representing me and paid by them was I willing to talk. One handed me his business card and said they would get back in touch, eight years later I am still waiting.
That’s the safe way to do it.
Good on you!
Thanks for the reminder, and attorney lead.
They can compel (take you in for) fingerprints, palm prints, a photograph and handwriting analysis without it being an arrest. No charges or arraignment.
I can understand fingerprints, a photograph, but, a handwriting analysis? Wouldn’t that fall under compelling you to be a witness against yourself? Would that fall under your Miranda Rights protection from self-incrimination?
The courts have ruled that a handwriting exemplar may be compelled. Of course, you could scribble if you wanted to. It’s more for intimidation than anything else, though that’s not the finding of federal courts.
A DNA test may also be required, but I have been out of the mix too long to say if that’s now the case.
You are not to small to bother with
You are low hanging fruit
Well now, today got more stupid in the International Political Arena.
The _Resident just spat in Putin’s face after – and I’m speculating because how could anyone really know – blowing a hole in Nord Stream 1&2. — poking the semi-resting bear in his cave is massively foolish. Can these people get anymore stupid, fulling forgetting the past 60 years in these matters. Biden may act tough but he’s an idiot marionette spouting off for his Handlers.
Never would happen under Trump…or DeSantis…because our enemies feared us. Not anymore, which means the Great American Weakening Debacle (‘GAWD!’) is intentional.
An argument I found compelling.
https://thelawdogfiles.com/2022/09/nordstream.html
That won’t stop anyone from claiming credit or spinning the event for political purposes.
Excellent…Ala Chernobyl. Pure incompetence.
From the ensuing chit chat by our Swamper Leadership it appears they want to spin this into a pretext for direct involvement in a war, and seemingly salivating over the prospect. These people are psycho, or dumber than rocks, or more likely, both.
Yep, never engage with them unless you have representation there! Re TSA, interestingly, SFO does NOT have TSA, they are private contractors.
Efram Zimbalist, Jr, is spinning in his grave. I never thought the USA would have it’s own version of the Gestapo.