When Courts regularly issues opinions stating that "Well, the FBI officials had no way of knowing that it was against the law to steal money while executing a search warrant which they lied to obtain" and thus sovereign immunity applies, you have serious problems with both the Court and the agency.
Here is a couple of links from Reason articles on this matter.
And one from Fox News.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/fbi-took-life-savings-now-fighting-help-others-get-back
Why do I doubt this?
Law enforcement in the USA have been granted letters of marque, except instead of those letters allowing them to seize the property of enemy nations, they allow them to seize the property of the citizenry.
Additionally, he quoted Walberg with out saying who he was or referencing the House resolution number.
he FBI asked for permission to remove hundreds of safe deposit boxes from a business in Beverly Hills.
The parallels between that debacle and getting a warrant to seize “stuff” from MarALago are uncanny.
I can almost recite the 4th Amendment, verbatim....clearly states....particularly describing the items to be seized and the places it can be found.
Particularly describing the item(s) to be seized.....I’m looking for a stolen car
The places it can be found....I can’t search the drawers of in someone’s bedroom.
At least that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Years ago, a friend that worked for the DEA said they would go to the US Post Office, FedEx, etc and run drug dogs through them to find the drugs, get a warrant and then do a controlled delivery.
That practice was stopped by a judge, who said it was a fishing expedition. After the practice was stopped, they would go to mailrooms based on a tip or information provided to them by an informant. He stated that the odors were overwhelming. Once the bad guys knew that the chances of their packages being intercepted were reduced to, basically, ZERO, it was wide open.
This is long overdue, but from the description of the bill I can’t tell if it addresses one of the biggest problems with current forfeiture laws. That problem is the legal theory that it is the property itself, and not its owner, that is in essence being “charged” with a crime, and therefore since property has no constitutional rights no probable cause or warrant is necessary. That absurd practice must be stopped. It’s one of the reasons it’s so difficult to get improperly seized assets back.
The United States Constitution already protects the property owners from illegal seizures. The FBI agents should be charged and prosecuted for theft of property.