from Asset Forfeiture
Policy Manual 2021


I. Guidelines for Planning for Seizure and Restraint
A. Background
The Department of Justice (Department) Asset Forfeiture Program (Program) encompasses the
seizure and forfeiture of assets that represent the proceeds of, or were used to facilitate, federal
crimes. The Program has four primary goals:
(1) Punish and deter criminal activity by depriving criminals of property used in or acquired
through illegal activities.
(2) Promote and enhance cooperation among federal, state, local, tribal, and foreign law
enforcement agencies.
(3) Recover assets that may be used to compensate victims when authorized under federal law.
(4) Ensure that the Program is administered professionally, lawfully, and in a manner consistent
with sound public policy

II. Payment of Attorneys’ Fees in Criminal Forfeiture Cases
A. Defendant’s attorneys’ fees
The defendant in a criminal forfeiture action may file for an award of attorneys’ fees only under
the Hyde Amendment.4 A motion for fees and costs filed in a civil forfeiture case under 28 U.S.C.
§ 2465(b) cannot include fees and costs incurred in even a directly related criminal proceeding.5
To prevail on a Hyde Amendment claim, the defendant must prove that: (1) the defendant was the
prevailing party in the underlying action; (2) the government’s position was vexatious, frivolous, or in
bad faith; and (3) there are no special circumstances that would make the award unjust.6
This burden
is heavier than the one the government must meet under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA

Sounds like there was no appeal, Trump’s insurrection records due to be released tomorrow. Courts are closed today, so there’s no chance of another frivolous delay. Get ready to have Trump’s treason shoved in your face for the next few years, if not forever. You know what’s in there is just horrific. That’s why he’s fighting tooth and nail to hide his unofficial personal/campaign actions surrounding his failed coup attempt.

Edit: nope, today he begged for a stay from the (closed) appellate court. It’s possible they’ll grant one, but unlikely since he has no new argument, and it’s settled law that he doesn’t have any right to claim executive privilege because he’s not the executive. At midnight in DC, the point is moot, don’t be surprised if the documents are handed over by 12:01 am.

Loss after loss after loss. Not a good time to be a Trumpzi. (Trumpist Nazi). I’m thinking he might be regretting reinstating the firing squad. On the plus side, he’s going to get the best ratings of his life if they televise it.

Sidney Powell, according to reports admitted during her deposition that she also didn't bother to check and see if any of this stuff was true, because she felt according to what it says in this deposition, that the truth wasn't material to the inquiry.
Why did you not ask to provide a statement, correcting the misstatements that you had reported?
SP-That didn't seem to be the material part of the inquiry.
So she admits that she made these claims. She admitted that she had no evidence to back them up and then was asked, “okay. But then you knew they were false. Why didn't you go out there and correct the record? “
SP- “That didn’t seem material.”

They’ve admitted now that they just saw people putting unverified nonsense on Facebook and that's where they got it from. And they didn't vet it. They didn't research it. They didn't fact check any of it, both Giuliani and Sidney Powell admitted that in their depositions. Wasn’t their job to make sure what they claimed on national tv had any basis in reality, they say.
In fact, once it was proven that their claims were false, they still never went out and retracted any of their frivolous, baseless, impossible, nonsense accusations, just like you, buddy. They just moved on to the next lie they found on Facebook and never looked back. That’s why you believe the utter bullshit you believe, Bob. Because people like this, under Trump’s direction, lie to you and you eat it up and ask for more, even when they tell you directly under oath that it’s all made up fantasy with no basis in fact or reality and is often completely impossible because the people involved have been dead for decades and because Italian space lasers can’t actually change paper ballots ….you still believe it, or pretend to which is worse.

His "lawyers" are facing disbarment for bringing frivolous lawsuits and knowingly submitting hundreds of known false affidavits that MIGHT contain one or two truthful statements. First they tried the ploy "there might be a false affidavit or two in there, but that's not our fault" , now they say "yes, most are fake, jokes, or even spam, but there could be a truthful one in the pile".

Every lawyer involved deserves to lose their license for life and prison time for submitting false evidence. It's the same thing as perjury.

In reality, there's no other choice since there's zero chance the current president will concede or cooperate with a smooth transition.

Once there's no chance remaining votes uncounted or contested could sway the election, a point we are well past, any challenges are academic and couldn't change results, so there's no reason to refuse to acknowledge that fact, especially when it's spurring right wing terrorists to act and dividing the nation, another point we past days ago. The obstinance is harmful to the nation and our institutions, like Trump is trying to burn the government down on his way out the door. No democrat has ever done this in similar circumstances. There's a theory that he's only doing it to bilk his followers out of more money towards his "legal defense fund" that really goes to pay off campaign debt and directly into his pockets with a small portion paying lawyers like Giuliani to lose cases. He's millions in debt there too, and it becomes his personal debt when he's out of office....with near a billion due next year, he needs every penny he can con them out of.

Normally the clear winner would be being brought up to speed on things like covid response and international relationships even if they weren't declared the official winner yet. (Edit: They would also have access to top secret intelligence all previous presidents (except Trump) use to vet their cabinet, being denied that information severely hampers Biden's ability to properly vet them, holding up his nominations. Thanks to Trump's disastrous covid response, Biden needs to be fully ready to change policies day one, it's life or death for 1000+ Americans every day he's delayed.) This time, with a petulant toddler throwing a tantrum for the next 2+ months, that might not help, because there's no telling what damage he might do before then. Biden is just making his own plans instead, preparing to start work day one no matter what dumpster fires Trump sets. That said, this obstinate denial of the results and sewing division, making up and repeating baseless charges to discredit the election (looking at you) have real world disastrous consequences and weakens the state of the union. It's clear the plan was to rely on the Trump appointed judges to rubber stamp the baseless claims and hand him a win. So far it hasn't worked, but it could. That's why we should care about the dozens of frivolous lawsuits, if his judges decide to be the lackeys he expects them to be, they could actually steal the election in court....but it would spark nationwide unrest if not insurgency.

Oh no.....say it ain't so.....

A Pennsylvania postal worker whose claims have been cited by top Republicans as potential evidence of widespread voting irregularities admitted to U.S. Postal Service investigators that he fabricated the allegations, according to three officials briefed on the investigation and a statement from a House congressional committee.

Richard Hopkins’s claim that a postmaster in Erie, Pa., instructed postal workers to backdate ballots mailed after Election Day was cited by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) in a letter to the Justice Department calling for a federal investigation. Attorney General William P. Barr subsequently authorized federal prosecutors to open probes into credible allegations of voting irregularities and fraud, a reversal of long-standing Justice Department policy.

But on Monday, Hopkins, 32, told investigators from the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General that the allegations were not true, and he signed an affidavit recanting his claims, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee tweeted late Tuesday that the “whistleblower completely RECANTED.”

Hopkins did not respond to messages seeking comment.

This liar was cited in numerous Trump lawsuits as the best most direct evidence of fraud....they've got nothing.

Surprise surprise surprise. 🤦‍♂️

Edit: and more "evidence" turns out to be fake....a video claiming to show poll workers stuffing a ballot box turned out to be in Russia. At what point can we bar the Republicans and Trump from filing more lawsuits? After 20 frivolous lawsuits using fake evidence? We are past that point. Even these cost money to try, how about they pay 100% of court costs up front for any future cases? They're broke, so that would end the farce.

Rotflmfahs!!!
Never backs down.....Except when prosecuted for fraud, or redlining (denying black people access to his buildings), or charity fraud, or finally admitting he repeatedly paid for sex while married, or when Mexico refused to build or pay for his wall, or when he promises to fix our infrastructure, or when he claims massive 2016 vote fraud, or when he promises to simplify taxes so they fit on a postcard, or about Covid/masks.... Seems like he often backs down....almost half as often as he's wrong.

The too close to call/recount is bullshit. Georgia, where he claims it's too close, requires the campaign asking for a recount to pay for it, and Trump is flat broke with a zero credit rating and his campaign is deep in massive debt. Good luck....it won't change the outcome even if it flips the state, which it won't. Remember, when you donate to the legal defense fund, most of that money goes to pay Trump's bills, some into his pocket, and what's left might pay Rudy to rant in a parking lot. It's not paying for decent lawyers to try a case, they're consistently being laughed out of court for having zero evidence of their baseless accusations, most of which wouldn't change results if found to be credible. Decent lawyers won't touch these frivolous cases.

The cheating and interference was 99.9996% from your team. >300000 missing mail in ballots because Trump's guy ignored court orders, slowed mail to a crawl, and refused to search mail sorting rooms for ballots like he was ordered to by a federal judge. Armed intimidation at polls. Last minute voter purges. One collection box for counties of 4 million. All republican tactics that kept it from being a massive blowout, but couldn't stop the tide. All you have to claim democrats cheated are words from untrustworthy liars, no evidence whatsoever.

It's funny you think your best argument for a second trump term is that he was incapable of presiding over a free and fair election or of accepting the results.

It's ok, Bob. You can admit you're crying in your beer. It must hurt to be forced to realize your world view is a fantasy.....just a dream.

No surprise these morons think a few thousand anti choice extremists are a bigger crowd than the millions in the pro women's march, just as there's no surprise Bobski would label this minuscule march against women's rights "California thanking trump". Women at this rally held signs saying "My husband is going to force me to vote for Trump again in 2020"
Keep dreaming buddy.
Trump will be lucky to get 15% in California. He is universally despised here, and his constant attacks, smears, frivolous lawsuits, threats, and lies about California haven't gained him any votes. Better toughen up buttercups. https://videosift.com/video/If-Youre-Gonna-Be-Dumb-You-Gotta-Be-Tough
Sad that there are some people this delusional who aren't institutionalized.

Golly sir, I sure am glad you’re here to explain it to me, but just for shits and giggles, let me take a stab at it.

Elon Musk wants to make humanity a multi-planet species, otherwise we are at risk of some kind of planet wide extinction level event. Having looked at the problem, he thinks the fundamental issue is one of economics. If he can get the price per person for a trip to Mars down to $500k, he figures he’ll get enough mad, bad and rich AF people to give forming a colony a go.

But that first step from earth to orbit is motherfucking expensive and aside from crazy unproven tech like a space elevator, thanks to the Tyranny of the Rocket Equation there really isn’t a cheap way to do this in terms of energy expenditure.

Ok, thinks Elon, what’s the other major cost in this whole shooting things into space gig? Hmm, the big fucking rocket costs a lot... be nice if we could reuse that instead of building a new one each time.

So he works on building a reusable rocket, and after many hilarious videos of “rapid unscheduled disassembly”, fuck me if the damn thing doesn’t start to stick the landing!

So now we need to do the same, but with a bigger rocket and a heavier payload. Can’t really risk an actual payload (see previous video of RUD) so what to do?

Well, the sensible, cost effective thing would be just a big heavy weight. But that’s got fuck all viral marketing appeal, so if you’re gonna shoot something into space as part of a multi billion dollar rocket program, what’s a measly couple of hundred k compared to the millions in free advertising for both Tesla and SpaceX this will generate!

Well, look at that. Turns out I do understand this!

But if think sending an expensive sports car into space WASN’T a frivolous waste of money, I invite you to spend time with someone sleeping rough or a family who doesn’t know where their next meal is coming from.

As I said, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it, but don’t pretend this was anything other than a billionaire doing something insanely cool and expensive because he thought it was cool.

If you think this was frivolous and a waste of money then you really don't understand the intent and the possible benefit of this.

*quality *doublepromote

We have problems we need to solve on Earth. These take money and resources. And if you’re sick, or homeless, it must feel shit to see people wasting money on frivolous things.

But we DO need inspiration, and art, and fun, and ridiculously, awesomely, stupid stunts. If we said we can’t do anything until we fix all the problems here, we’d never do anything.

So

I don't know how it is in the states, but in this country if you want to go through gender reassignment you will get it for free on the NHS. Its a long road, it isn't easy, they make it hard etc, but like anything else that poses a risk to somebodies health it is paid for by the state. I feel like a lot of people consider reassignment a sort of frivolous sex thing but being unable to escape the body in which you are born is, you know, desperately depressing. I don't think I am exaggerating when I say that surgery and hormone treatment are potentially lifesaving, and certainly greatly improve the quality of life in most cases.

Couple of things I don't understand - Is this the military saying they will no longer pay for treatments associated with gender reassignment, or is this a blanket ban on transgender men and women from serving in the military? One wonders why the military can't spend even a fraction of the amount is spends on toys on its servicemen/women...

Anyhoo. It's a distraction. Not trying to suggest that it is a minor thing for those affected, but I really think this is to divert the left and win back support from the right. It sucks dreadfully that a minority group is again used as target for political maneuvering and it is worthy of resistance but I can't help but feel we are playing into their hand by doing so.

@bobknight33 I pity you.

Very cool. I doubt many big boats would do this too frivolously, though, since the horn is used to signal to other boats: 1 or 2 to indicate direction, 3 for backing up, and 5 or more if you don't understand/agree.

This is probably why the skipper gave exactly 4 toots... unless I'm forgetting something in my attempt to show how clever I am.

(Actually, I think I am... there are no other boats around to signal to, so he's probably grand... I'll leave this here anyway... boy am I smart).

...followed by a commercial for legal advice when you're the target of frivolous lawsuits, followed by a spot for a prescription drug to combat the stress of being counter-sued, followed by an ad for a class action lawsuit against fraudulent medical advertising, followed by Trump being president for ever and ever and ever and ever.

it's funny perhaps because when you're young those little moments, glimpses of infidelity seem so much bigger, more dramatic than the actual impact it has on your life before adulthood. It feels almost like mock passion; how one thinks one should respond. But it is a pure and naive response; romantic and tragic.

Also, honest and hurt and emboldened to make a video to send as a form of retribution. Yet what retribution did she really have? She threw a bracelet which she only momentarily cherished into a riverbed, as if it were the wedding ring worn for thirty years, now tarnished by her husband's revealed secrets.

It's funny because of it's contrast with our adult experiences and understanding, having experienced or known of this early form of love betrayal in our youth, we are now mature and knowing of human nature, but now reminded in an amusing way because of what she doesn't know yet that we know: irony.

Perhaps a scandal to all of her 12 year old classmates, to some it is frivolous and others an amusement. Something to acknowledge and also chuckle at, but also to admire in her self worth and conquering spirit. It's beautiful, I think. I'm with eric on this: you go girl! hahaha!