NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office hit back at President Donald Trump’s executive order to pull federal funding from states that have “cashless bail,” calling the move “reckless” and saying the president has “no concept of how the law works in New York.”
The statement from Hochul's office came the same day that NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch sat down with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi at NYPD headquarters, telling her National Guard troops aren't needed in the city and that the NYPD has things under control. During sit-down, the two are also said to have discussed the NYPD's new Quality of Life division and record-low shooting incidents this year.
Trump on Monday suggested the National Guard could be sent to more U.S. cities to curb crime and signed an executive order threatening to withhold or revoke federal funding to local and state governments that offer cashless bail, arguing it's a threat to public safety.
“No cash. Come back in a couple of months, we’ll give you a trial. You never see the person again,” he said, moments before signing the order.
The order directs Bondi to submit a list of jurisdictions that have “substantially eliminated cash bail as a potential condition of pretrial release from custody for crimes that pose a clear threat to public safety and order” within 30 days.
Among them could be New York state, which passed a law in 2019 removing the use of cash bail for most misdemeanors and some nonviolent felonies. The changes have been tweaked multiple times amid criticism that judges were being deprived of a tool they could use to hold people likely to commit new crimes.
"President Trump has no concept of how the law works in New York,” Hochul spokesperson Jen Goodman said in a statement.
“New York has not eliminated cash bail,” the statement continued. “His reckless threat to withhold federal funds would only undercut law enforcement and make our communities less safe. The fact is Governor Hochul changed New York's bail laws so violent offenders are held accountable, and as a result rearrests are down. New York now has one of the lowest violent crime rates in six decades. The Governor also gave judges more discretion to keep dangerous individuals behind bars, and she encourages them to use it."
On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams, who has been an outspoken critic of bail reform, said he'd read Trump's executive order and that he’s “always made it clear that our revolving-door system of dealing with violent offenders must be addressed. I think the former governor [Cuomo] made a terrible mistake on how they did bail reform.”