{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20141115200658/http://sensenbrenner.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=397661", "House lawmaker questions civil seizures in letter to Attorney General Eric Holder", "2014-10-24", "2014", "2014-10", "Republican", "House", "WI", "F. Sensenbrenner", "S000244", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "A leading House lawmaker on Friday asked U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to provide an array of documents and data relating to the Justice Department\u2019s role in tens of thousands of cash and property seizures made in recent years by state and local police under federal civil asset forfeiture laws.\nThe request by Rep. F. James \u201cJim\u201d Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations, is part of an inquiry into the billions of dollars in seizures made through Justice\u2019s Equitable Sharing Program, the federal government\u2019s largest asset forfeiture initiative.\n\u201cWhile we must ensure law enforcement is properly equipped, they should not be funded by slush funds accrued by violating Americans\u2019 civil liberties,\u201d Sensenbrenner said in a statement Friday. \nSensenbrenner asked Holder for details about the policies governing such seizures and the standard of proof necessary before the federal government \u201cadopts\u201d a state or local seizure into the Equitable Sharing Program. Federal civil seizures can occur when police say they believe property is tied to crime through a preponderance of the evidence. \nSensenbrenner said he is concerned that local authorities turn to the Justice program when state civil asset forfeiture laws are stricter than the federal standards. He said he worries that police have sometimes trampled individual rights when making cash and property seizures without filing criminal charges. \u201cThe implications on civil liberties are dire,\u201d he said in the Oct. 24 letter. \u201cThe right to own property is a fundamental right implicitly recognized in the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. I also believe that it is a human right.\u201d  \nAdvertisement\nSensenbrenner\u2019s request follows a Washington Post investigation that found that 61,998 cash seizures have been made on U.S. highways and elsewhere since 9/11 without search warrants or indictments through Equitable Sharing, totaling more than $2.5 billion. \nJustice, Homeland Security and other federal agencies received $800 million of that total, and the rest went to states and localities. \nFriday\u2019s letter follows similar requests for documents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In those letters, Sensenbrenner sought details about how challenges from cash and property owners are handled. \nThough owners can seek to get their property back through the federal courts, the cost is often prohibitive. Sensenbrenner noted that there is an administrative process for property owners but agency decisions there are \u201cnot subject to subsequent challenge.\u201d\nThe Post investigation found that only about a sixth of the seizures were challenged. But in 41 percent of the challenged cases \u2014 more than 4,000 \u2014 the government agreed to return all or part of the money. The appeals process often took more than a year and required owners of the cash to sign agreements not to sue police over the seizures. \n\u201cGiven these inherent conflicts, what procedures and protections exist to ensure fair adjudications of the claims and to protect against conflicts of interest?\u201d Sensenbrenner wrote. He told The Post in a statement that the asset forfeiture system \u201craises serious Constitutional and ethical red flags. I strongly believe this deserves scrutiny and aggressive Congressional oversight.\u201d View online, here", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20141115200658/http://sensenbrenner.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=397661"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.993040855973959, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}