Frady advocates using civil asset forfeiture against left-wing groups.

What this episode covers

Bill Frady: All right, all you happy taxpayers. Hope everybody had a good Fourth. I was sincerely hoping when I moved into my new neighborhood with my senior citizen neighbors that are like myself that some of them would say, "Well, I saved as much money as I did by not having any fireworks," but I guess once you're financially secure, you can buy all the fireworks you want. We're in a interesting window of time because right now the left could really be badly weakened, maybe broken. And we could do it by something that a lot of people around here won't—a lot of people think that it should be curbed, but right now we could actually exploit this. And the way we would do it would be with civil asset forfeiture. Now, just hear me out. This legal procedure allows law enforcement people—an attorney general, district attorney—to seize property based solely on suspicion of criminal activity. No criminal charge, no conviction necessary is required. It rests on the extraordinary legal fiction that the property itself, rather than its owner, is the defendant, which is a very implausible premise, but it is firmly embedded in American law and has been repeatedly endorsed by the Supreme Court. Most people think this only is, you know, applied solely against organized crime, but in reality, it's often against the innocent. Between 2000 and 2021, $82 billion in the form of real estate, commercial businesses, cash, and financial instruments were taken by forfeiture. For the initial seizure of property, all they have to do is put together what they would call a reasonable basis to believe the asset contributed to criminal activity—plausible suspicion. And if the owner challenges the seizure, then they need to meet this only low preponderance of the evidence standard. Um, you have to show that it's more likely warranted than not. They describe this as 50% plus a feather. And the forfeiture is a civil, not a criminal case. So, contesting the seizure, while it may pose a very serious problem for the party whose property was seized, not so much for law enforcement. Contesting means that the claimant is exposing himself to a huge, wide swath of discovery by the government, including interrogatories, requests for production, requests for admission, depositions, and subpoenas for records. Government also has other critical advantages as well. Under Rule 38 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, if the forfeiture is contested, they can demand a jury trial. And, well, because of under Rule 48, the verdict against the government must be unanimous; otherwise, the mistrial is declared, and the property stays with the government. [laughs] And this is asymmetrical warfare, folks. This is something they don't count on. This is what they would do. This is a—this is a tactic they would use, and they'd think, "Well, you guys are Republicans, you're count—you're not going to do that." Now, there's a right to an appeal after an unfavorable verdict arguing that the seizure was grossly disproportionate, but it has to require a final judgment, and a mistrial does not allow that option. And possession is nine-tenths of the law. A lot of people, a lot of the naive people, think the most powerful tool law enforcement has against organized crime is the RICO Act. But the initial petition for seizure will not be granted unless there's a pre-existing criminal conviction. So, this requires the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard. And civil asset forfeiture is more practical than RICO. It's easier to get it in place; it's easier to put it there. And there are enterprises with far more impact than drug cartels, like NGOs and non-profits. You're supposed to believe that these things are charities, but what this means is that their profits are not dispersed as a dividend. When they're a non-profit, that's—that's not how it works. So, the stereotypical NGO is the Southern Poverty Law Center. It has an endowment of $822 million. And in April 2026, the DOJ indicte ...

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