FBI Seized $86 Million From People Not Suspected of Any Crime. A Federal Court Will Decide if That's Legal.
On Thursday, a federal appeals court will hear about the FBI's "blatant scheme to circumvent" the Fourth Amendment.Following a raid in March 2021, federal agents spent days rifling through the personal belongings stored in nearly 1,400 safe deposit boxes seized from a vault in Beverly Hills, California.
The agents were tasked with cataloging the contents of the boxes, but they also seized piles of valuables—gold coins, luxury watches, family heirlooms, and stacks of cash—from people who had not been charged with any crimes.
And they did that despite being told, by the warrant authorizing the raid, that the contents of the safe deposit boxes were off-limits.
On Thursday, a panel of federal judges at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will be asked whether the FBI's brazen smash-and-grab scheme that netted more than $86 million in forfeited cash and property violated the Fourth Amendment rights of the raid's innocent victims.
"The fundamental principle at stake is that if the govern...
https://reason.com/2023/12/06/the-fbi-seized-their-safe-deposit-boxes-now-a-federal-court-will-hear-the-case/
“Biggest Transnational Crime Group on Earth”: Why Canada Must Break Free From China
A group of top national security experts is sounding the alarm: Canada’s relationship with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has crossed from economic engagement into a full-blown democratic threat.
At a Dec. 6 forum in Toronto, former RCMP proceeds-of-crime director Garry Clement called the CCP “the biggest transnational organized crime group ever seen,” warning that Beijing is actively infiltrating Canada’s political, business, and cultural institutions. Through the United Front Work Department, the CCP co-opts elites, business leaders, community organizations, and media outlets—while intimidating and surveilling dissidents “on a daily basis.”
Clement also linked Beijing to the fentanyl crisis, saying the CCP could shut down precursor shipments to Canada “if they really wanted to,” but instead allows the flow as a form of “disruptive warfare,” echoing the tactics of the Opium Wars....
