President's Order to Try to Eliminate Cashless Bail Fuels Debate in NYC

President Donald J. Trump on Monday signed an executive order that seeks to strip away federal funds to jurisdictions that have a cashless bail policy like New York City. 

The order directs U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to submit a list of states and local jurisdictions with cashless bail policies and identify federal funds that are currently being provided to them so that it can be later be suspended or terminated.

"Our great law enforcement officers risk their lives to arrest potentially violent criminals, only to be forced to arrest the same individuals, sometimes for the same crimes, while they await trial on the previous charges," the executive order read. "This is a waste of public resources and a threat to public safety."

New York ended the use of money bail for most cases involving misdemeanors and lower-level felonies in 2019. The law, which was implemented in January 2020, was to release the defendants rather than to detain them in jail. 

That said, this goal has changed in the subsequent legislative sessions, according to analysis from the Brennan Center for Justice. After politicized concerns about rising crime during the COVID-19 pandemic, lawmakers passed three rounds of revisions to the law, which includes several exceptions allowing judges to set bail in some cases involving lower-level offenses. There is no evidence showing a connection between bail reform and rising crime rates, according to the think tank.

“President Trump has no concept of how the law works in New York," Jen Goodman, Governor Kathy Hochul's spokesperson said in a statement. "New York has not eliminated cash bail. His reckless threat to withhold federal funds would only undercut law enforcement and make our communities less safe."

The governor changed New York’s bail laws so violent offenders are held accountable, and as a result rearrests are down, Goodman added.

“As New York has cash bail for violent offenses, and repeat offender arrests have been decreasing, it’s clear that the drafters of this executive order don’t know the facts about New York's law, but it doesn’t matter as it’s very likely that this order - like many of this administration's EOs - won’t stand up in court," said Rich Azzopardi, spokesman for former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who implemented the change in bail policy.

Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa agreed with the president's move.

“Cashless bail has been a disaster for New York, fueling crime and putting dangerous repeat offenders right back on our streets," Sliwa said in a statement. "I am in agreement with President Trump on this executive order—any effort to eliminate it is welcome. But it was Andrew Cuomo who signed it into law in 2019 and who proudly continues to support it while running for mayor, and Zohran Mamdani is for it as well. Cuomo has failed New Yorkers by refusing to get rid of it.”

Kayla Altus, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams, said the mayor has spent the last four years working with the state to improve the laws passed by Cuomo.

"There is still more to do, but we have made meaningful progress," she said in a statement. "While freedom before trial should not depend on the size of a person’s bank account, the current system has created a revolving door of crime."

The mayor has been clear that a small group of repeat offenders is responsible for a disproportionate share of crime, and current laws keep putting them right back on our streets, she said.

"At the same time, federal funding has been critical to the Adams administration’s historic reductions in crime citywide, and stripping those dollars away would only make matters worse. We will review the executive order," Altus said.

Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani said the best way to tackle the president is to be direct and "fight him."

"It’s not to cower, it’s not to collaborate, it’s not to call... Through strength, and through belief in the convictions that you hold in the very fabric of the city you represent, you are able to fight back against an administration that is seemingly hell bent on tearing apart this city," he said during a rally in Greenpoint on Monday.