On the recordJune 13, 2017
I just want to thank my friend for pointing out the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. One thing about that group, when I was a judge, or assistant DA, if you needed somebody's banking records, then you would have to get sworn evidence--normally in affidavit form--and take it to a judge, and there had to be sufficient detail in the affidavit to establish--again, under oath--that a crime had probably been committed and that the person whose banking records we were seeking had probably committed the crime. If that could be done, then the judge would sign the warrant. Like my years as a judge handling felony cases, there were some warrants I turned down. There is just not enough particularity here. There is not probable cause that this person committed the crime, or I don't see probable cause that a crime was committed. But, normally, law enforcement was good about making sure that probable cause was there, and the DA office would help them. But the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has come in and it has basically begun to challenge the Internal Revenue Service for acting in the most unconstitutional ways. It may be a toss up now which one uses more unconstitutional authority than the other.…
