NEW YORK (AP) -- President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order threatening to revoke federal funding from local and state governments, like New York, that allow cashless bail, according to a White House official.
The official requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter before a public announcement later in the morning.
Trump has been escalating his focus on public safety, particularly in Democratic cities such as Washington, where he’s deployed National Guard troops and federal agents over the objections of local officials.
New York state approved sweeping changes in 2019 aimed at keeping defendants who can’t afford bail from being disproportionately jailed. But those 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.
The issue has been a flashpoint between liberal Democrats, who say requiring people to pay cash to get out of jail rigs the system against poor people, and elected officials who cast it as a public safety issue.
1010 WINS contributed to this report.