{"id":175381,"date":"2025-08-25T21:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T21:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/175381\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T21:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T21:58:11","slug":"ny-sweats-out-trumps-cashless-bail-executive-order-as-hochul-blasts-admin-over-funding-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/175381\/","title":{"rendered":"NY sweats out Trump’s cashless bail executive order as Hochul blasts admin over funding threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

They\u2019re skipping bail \u2014 for now.<\/p>\n

New York leaders largely adopted a wait-and-see approach to President Trump\u2019s executive order Monday aiming to end cashless bail <\/a>\u2014 with some saying his edict wouldn\u2019t apply to the Empire State.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s order gave US Attorney General Pam Bondi 30 days to compile a list of states and local jurisdictions that, in her opinion, \u201csubstantially eliminated\u201d cash bail \u2013 and threatened to cut off federal funding for them.<\/p>\n

But a slew of critics argued the executive order was vaguely worded and open to wildly different interpretations.<\/p>\n

President Trump signed an executive order Monday aimed at ending cashless bail. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump has no concept of how the law works in New York,\u201d said Jen Goodman, a spokeswoman for Gov. Kathy Hochul. <\/p>\n

\u201cNew York has not eliminated cash bail. His reckless threat to withhold federal funds would only undercut law enforcement and make our communities less safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York\u2019s controversial bail reform went into effect in 2020, in part as a response to the suicide of Kalief Browder<\/a> after he spent three years in Rikers Island\u2019s jail for allegedly stealing a backpack.<\/p>\n

The reform signed into law by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo largely eliminated bail for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, but kept it for violent offenses, including murder, rape and robbery.<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul argued the order wouldn\u2019t even apply to the state\u2019s controversial bail reforms. Don Pollard<\/p>\n

Many law enforcement officials and pols argued it led to a spike in crime from recidivists repeatedly set free on low-level offenses.<\/p>\n

New York lawmakers have repeatedly tweaked the law to make more offenses bail eligible and to give judges more leeway to impose bail<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Those tweaks, however, haven\u2019t gone far enough for bail reform opponents, starting with Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt started in New York and it\u2019s been a horrible thing for crime,\u201d Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s executive order calls to identify states that have eliminated cash bail for crimes that \u201cpose a clear threat to public safety and order,\u201d including violent and sexual offenses, as well as burglary, looting and vandalism.<\/p>\n

Cuomo\u2019s spokesman Rich Azzopardi brushed off the order, noting New York already makes most of those offenses bail-eligible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs New York has cash bail for violent offenses, and repeat offender arrests have been decreasing, it\u2019s clear that the drafters of this executive order don\u2019t know the facts about New York\u2019s law, but it doesn\u2019t matter as it\u2019s very likely that this order \u2014 like many of this administration\u2019s EOs \u2014 won\u2019t stand up in court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s order also threatens federal funding to jurisdictions with cashless bail.<\/p>\n

The order could play well with New Yorkers unhappy with legislators pushing bail reform, but it\u2019s ultimately not the right way to go, said Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s another thing for the federal government to swoop in and try to control a state function,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have a federalist system. It\u2019s not very good for the federal government to take that over. It\u2019s probably not constitutional. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s very constructive at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx), a staunch defender of the 2019 bail reforms, seemed to downplay Trump\u2019s executive order and called it a \u201cdistraction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPresidents can\u2019t unilaterally deny funding just because they feel like it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

What funding in New York could end up on the chopping block was unclear, but the state and the Big Apple each receive billions from the federal government.<\/p>\n

And any changes to comply with Trump\u2019s order, even if ultimately minuscule, still would require Albany lawmakers to change the law for judges to start giving bail to certain offenders again.<\/p>\n

All five of New York City\u2019s district attorneys either declined or didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment on the order.<\/p>\n

Opponents of New York\u2019s bail reform contend it led to a spike in crime. Michael Nigro<\/p>\n

The order did draw praise from a slew of New York pols, from Mayor Eric Adams to his Republican challenger Curtis Sliwa to Upstate GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows my feeling about the revolving door \u2014 but we\u2019ll see the exact impact on the city,\u201d Adams told reporters prior to the release of the full text of the order.<\/p>\n

Sliwa attacked Cuomo, who is also running for mayor, for passing the reform in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cCashless bail has been a disaster for New York, fueling crime and putting dangerous repeat offenders right back on our streets,\u201d Sliwa said. \u201cI am in agreement with President Trump on this executive order\u2014any effort to eliminate it is welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stefanik, who is eyeing a run for governor<\/a> against Hochul in 2026, said she\u2019ll lead the effort in Congress to tighten laws around cashless bail.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long, New Yorkers have suffered violent crimes and even lost their lives due to Kathy Hochul and single party Democrat rule\u2019s dangerous anti-police, pro-criminal policies,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Trump deserves kudos for recognizing what\u2019s \u201cgoing on in the belly of the beast,\u201d said staunch bail reform opponent Michelle Esqueunazi, president of both the NYS Bail Association and the National Association of Bail Agents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no president in modern history who understands the impact of crime the way Trump does,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not only good for our profession. It\u2019s good for society as a whole,\u201d she said of curbing cashless bail.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Harrison, founder of the Victims Rights Reform Council, said the order\u2019s broad wording could be a crime-fighting feature, rather than a bug.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe executive order may seem vague on paper, but that vagueness could actually be our best friend,\u201d she said. \u201cIt gives the Attorney General broad discretion, which hopefully means woke activist judges and Soros-funded progressive prosecutors can finally be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s unclear how the order will be interpreted, said Rafael A. Mangual, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hope here is that the executive order puts pressure on places like New York and Illinois to revise their pre-trial release rules,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that he is putting his finger on is that people around the country are unhappy with how bail reforms have been carried out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019re skipping bail \u2014 for now. New York leaders largely adopted a wait-and-see approach to President Trump\u2019s executive…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":175382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,37635,4219,69,19887,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-175381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bail","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-executive-orders","13":"tag-metro","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-us-news","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115091649583942743","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}