Hochul pushes back on Trump’s cashless bail funding threat

By Chris Wade
The Center Square

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing back on President Donald Trump’s “reckless” push to do away with cashless bail, saying the move to withhold federal funding would undermine public safety.

Trump signed an executive order Monday threatening to withhold federal funding from states and cities that allow cashless bail, arguing the policies pose a threat to public safety. The White House also released a memo with the new order highlighting several cases where suspects in New York and other cities were released without bail but later accused of committing other crimes, including murder, drug dealing and sexual assault.

“Maintaining order and public safety requires incarcerating individuals whose pending criminal charges or criminal history demonstrate a clear ongoing risk to society,” Trump’s directive states. “When these individuals are released without bail under city or State policies, they are permitted — even encouraged — to further endanger law-abiding, hard-working Americans because they know our laws will not be enforced.”

However, a Hochul spokesperson issued a statement blasting Trump for misunderstanding how New York’s bail law works and pointing to changes in the law that strike a balance between due process and protecting public safety.

“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 statement said. “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.”

New York eliminated bail for most nonviolent felony charges in 2020 as part of overhauling the criminal justice system. A series of high-profile murders and shootings across the state prompted Hochul and others to call for tightening pre-detention bail laws. A provision in the two-year $229 billion budget signed by Hochul in April included changes to the system that gave New York state judges more discretion to keep dangerous suspects locked up ahead of trial.

But Trump’s order drew praise from New York Republicans, who have sought unsuccessfully for years to do away with the state’s bail law.

“Kathy Hochul and NY Democrats’ failed bail reform has been a catastrophic disaster leading to a crime crisis in New York making every family and community less safe,” U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York City Republican, said in a statement. “Again and again, Kathy Hochul has prioritized violent criminals over law-abiding New Yorkers. Enough is enough.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who has pushed for changes to the state’s bail law, used Trump’s order to criticize his main rivals in the upcoming election, Democratic nominee and Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who signed the original bail reform law.

“Zohran Mamdani wants to finish what Andrew Cuomo started,” Adams, who is running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary, said in a statement. “Cuomo signed the reckless bail reform law that unleashed violent criminals into YOUR neighborhoods. Now Mamdani wants to take it even further by defunding the NYPD and leaving YOUR city — especially Black and Brown communities — defenseless.”

A Cuomo campaign spokesman defended the 2020 bail reforms and criticized Adams for claiming that he is the “law and order” candidate in the mayoral race.

“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,” Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said in the statement. “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.”