Aug 21, 2026 · 25 min · 15 segments
In this episode, I explore the issue of civil asset forfeiture, a practice that can allow the government to seize property—including cash, cars, homes, bank accounts, jewelry, electronics, firearms…
Trey EvansHost
And I wanna talk about this today because this is a practice that is used within law enforcement that often affects everyday citizens.
And then of course some things that you can do, uh, to protect yourself if you find yourself in that situation regarding having your assets forfeited due to, uh, criminal investigations.
And, uh, I guess to get started, l- I should probably give a definition of what asset forfeiture is and how it's used and how it is affecting citizens, everyday citizens here in the United States.
So asset forfeiture is a tool that is used by law enforcement, and it originally was designed to take away assets that criminals were using to proceed or to create their criminal activity.
Matter of fact, I'm reading a definition directly here from the Department of Justice.
It says, "Asset forfeiture is a critical legal tool that serves a number of compelling law enforcement purposes.
Asset forfeiture is designed to deprive criminals of their proceeds of their crimes, to break the financial backbone of organized criminal syndicates and drug cartels, and to recover property that may be used to compensate victims and deter crime." Now, when you hear that, of course, you know, anyone who is a law-abiding citizen would say, "Well, that sounds like something that should be done." Right? If there's criminal activity, there should be some type of, uh, system or process in place to take away those assets from individuals who have committed crimes and render them helpless so they can't continue to do crimes.
The problem is, is that this is also being used against citizens as well who have been accused of a crime.
So under the forfeiture statute, if you will, there are three types of, um, statutes, or three types of forfeiture that can occur under asset forfeiture based on criminal activity, and those three are criminal forfeiture, civil forf- uh, civil, excuse me, civil judicial forfeiture, and administrate- and administrative forfeiture.
And like I said, today I wanna talk about civil forfeiture because what happens in civil forfeiture is that individuals who are accused, not convicted, not arrested, but can be accused of committing a crime, can have their assets removed and placed into forfeiture, and oftentimes forces individuals to either prove that they are not involved in criminal activity or that their asset is not involved in criminal activity.
And if they don't prove it or they can't fight against it, what- happens often is that that asset is then taken away permanently, and it goes into the hands of the law enforcement community for that county or state, and it literally becomes a part of their revenue.
It says here, "In court proceedings brought against property that was devru- de- derived from or used to commit an offense, rather than against a person who committed an offense.
Although the government is still required to prove in court by a proprovit, pro- excuse me.
And I wanna talk about this today because this is a practice that is used within law enforcement that often affects everyday citizens.
And then of course some things that you can do, uh, to protect yourself if you find yourself in that situation regarding having your assets forfeited due to, uh, criminal investigations.
And, uh, I guess to get started, l- I should probably give a definition of what asset forfeiture is and how it's used and how it is affecting citizens, everyday citizens here in the United States.
So asset forfeiture is a tool that is used by law enforcement, and it originally was designed to take away assets that criminals were using to proceed or to create their criminal activity.
Matter of fact, I'm reading a definition directly here from the Department of Justice.
It says, "Asset forfeiture is a critical legal tool that serves a number of compelling law enforcement purposes.
Asset forfeiture is designed to deprive criminals of their proceeds of their crimes, to break the financial backbone of organized criminal syndicates and drug cartels, and to recover property that may be used to compensate victims and deter crime." Now, when you hear that, of course, you know, anyone who is a law-abiding citizen would say, "Well, that sounds like something that should be done." Right? If there's criminal activity, there should be some type of, uh, system or process in place to take away those assets from individuals who have committed crimes and render them helpless so they can't continue to do crimes.
The problem is, is that this is also being used against citizens as well who have been accused of a crime.
So under the forfeiture statute, if you will, there are three types of, um, statutes, or three types of forfeiture that can occur under asset forfeiture based on criminal activity, and those three are criminal forfeiture, civil forf- uh, civil, excuse me, civil judicial forfeiture, and administrate- and administrative forfeiture.
And like I said, today I wanna talk about civil forfeiture because what happens in civil forfeiture is that individuals who are accused, not convicted, not arrested, but can be accused of committing a crime, can have their assets removed and placed into forfeiture, and oftentimes forces individuals to either prove that they are not involved in criminal activity or that their asset is not involved in criminal activity.
And if they don't prove it or they can't fight against it, what- happens often is that that asset is then taken away permanently, and it goes into the hands of the law enforcement community for that county or state, and it literally becomes a part of their revenue.
It says here, "In court proceedings brought against property that was devru- de- derived from or used to commit an offense, rather than against a person who committed an offense.
Although the government is still required to prove in court by a proprovit, pro- excuse me.
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