After Donald Trump suggested a Texan sheriff should “destroy” the career of a state lawmaker opposed to civil asset forfeiture, a Pennsylvania state senator fired back on Twitter, calling the president a “fascist, loofa-faced sh*t gibbon!”
“I oppose civil asset forfeiture too!” Daylin Leach, a Democratic senator, Tweeted. “Why don’t you try to destroy my career,” he asked before unleashing a tirade of insults in roughly the style of John Malkovich.
Under civil asset forfeiture, law enforcement can seize property, including cash, tied to criminal investigations without securing a guilty verdict or even filing formal charges.
The practice was initially intended to cripple the operations of terrorists or drug dealers. But after reports that police and sheriffs have widely abused the practice to enrich their own departments, civil asset forfeiture has come under bipartisan criticism.
As Trump met with county sheriffs yesterday, one Texan official referenced a lawmaker who wanted convictions before asset seizure, saying that “the cartel would build a monument to him in Mexico if he could get that legislation passed.”
“Who is the state senator? Do you want to give his name? We’ll destroy his career,” Trump said, according to a Politico article, prompting Leach’s Tweets.
On Wednesday evening, the Pennsylvania lawmaker doubled down on his comments through a spokesman.
“President Trump blithely talked about destroying the career of a man who disagreed with Trump on a policy issue,” Steve Hoenstine, Leach’s spokesman, said in an email to Heat Street. “Then Trump laughed about it, which is just what you’d expect from someone who gets his kicks firing people on national television. Trump continues to undermine democratic norms, America’s system of checks and balances, and the general principle of human decency. Senator Leach is mad as hell about it, as you can see from his tweet.”
Pennsylvania is currently considering legislation that would impose some restrictions on civil asset forfeiture. Last year, Leach co-sponsored a bill that would have guaranteed the right to counsel for suspects whose property was seized. He has criticized the current legislation, much amended from his proposal, as weak.