IJ Statement Responding to AG Sessions’ Civil Forfeiture Oversight Announcement

According to a report in the Washington Post, the Department of Justice plans to appoint an internal watchdog unit to oversee its civil forfeiture activities. Following the news, Institute for Justice Attorney Robert Everett Johnson issued the following statement:

Attorney General Sessions has appointed the fox to guard the henhouse. For years, DOJ bureaucrats have used civil forfeiture to take property from innocent Americans. Widespread and well-documented abuse has led to bipartisan calls for reform. And now the Attorney General’s answer is to put more bureaucrats in the room. But no amount of government bureaucracy can substitute for basic respect for Americans’ constitutional rights. Congress needs to act, where DOJ will not.