They’re skipping bail — for now.
New York leaders largely adopted a wait-and-see approach to President Trump’s executive order Monday aiming to end cashless bail — with some saying his edict wouldn’t apply to the Empire State.
Trump’s order gave US Attorney General Pam Bondi 30 days to compile a list of states and local jurisdictions that, in her opinion, “substantially eliminated” cash bail – and threatened to cut off federal funding for them.
But a slew of critics argued the executive order was vaguely worded and open to wildly different interpretations.
“President Trump has no concept of how the law works in New York,” said Jen Goodman, a spokeswoman for Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“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.”
New York’s controversial bail reform went into effect in 2020, in part as a response to the suicide of Kalief Browder after he spent three years in Rikers Island’s jail for allegedly stealing a backpack.
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.
Many law enforcement officials and pols argued it led to a spike in crime from recidivists repeatedly set free on low-level offenses.
New York lawmakers have repeatedly tweaked the law to make more offenses bail eligible and to give judges more leeway to impose bail.
Those tweaks, however, haven’t gone far enough for bail reform opponents, starting with Trump.
“It started in New York and it’s been a horrible thing for crime,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday.
Trump’s executive order calls to identify states that have eliminated cash bail for crimes that “pose a clear threat to public safety and order,” including violent and sexual offenses, as well as burglary, looting and vandalism.
Cuomo’s spokesman Rich Azzopardi brushed off the order, noting New York already makes most of those offenses bail-eligible.
“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,” he said.
The order could play well with New Yorkers unhappy with legislators pushing bail reform, but it’s ultimately not the right way to go, said Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
“It’s another thing for the federal government to swoop in and try to control a state function,” she said. “We have a federalist system. It’s not very good for the federal government to take that over. It’s probably not constitutional. I don’t think it’s very constructive at all.”
State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx), a staunch defender of the 2019 bail reforms, seemed to downplay Trump’s executive order and called it a “distraction.”
“Presidents can’t unilaterally deny funding just because they feel like it,” he said.
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.
And any changes to comply with Trump’s order, even if ultimately minuscule, still would require Albany lawmakers to change the law for judges to start giving bail to certain offenders again.
All five of New York City’s district attorneys either declined or didn’t respond to requests for comment on the order.
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.
“Everyone knows my feeling about the revolving door — but we’ll see the exact impact on the city,” Adams told reporters prior to the release of the full text of the order.
Sliwa attacked Cuomo, who is also running for mayor, for passing the reform in the first place.
“Cashless bail has been a disaster for New York, fueling crime and putting dangerous repeat offenders right back on our streets,” Sliwa said. “I am in agreement with President Trump on this executive order—any effort to eliminate it is welcome.”
Stefanik, who is eyeing a run for governor against Hochul in 2026, said she’ll lead the effort in Congress to tighten laws around cashless bail.
“For too long, New Yorkers have suffered violent crimes and even lost their lives due to Kathy Hochul and single party Democrat rule’s dangerous anti-police, pro-criminal policies,” she said.
Trump deserves kudos for recognizing what’s “going on in the belly of the beast,” said staunch bail reform opponent Michelle Esqueunazi, president of both the NYS Bail Association and the National Association of Bail Agents.
“There’s no president in modern history who understands the impact of crime the way Trump does,” she said.
“This is not only good for our profession. It’s good for society as a whole,” she said of curbing cashless bail.
Jennifer Harrison, founder of the Victims Rights Reform Council, said the order’s broad wording could be a crime-fighting feature, rather than a bug.
“The executive order may seem vague on paper, but that vagueness could actually be our best friend,” she said. “It gives the Attorney General broad discretion, which hopefully means woke activist judges and Soros-funded progressive prosecutors can finally be held accountable.”
Still, it’s unclear how the order will be interpreted, said Rafael A. Mangual, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
“The hope here is that the executive order puts pressure on places like New York and Illinois to revise their pre-trial release rules,” he said.
“The thing that he is putting his finger on is that people around the country are unhappy with how bail reforms have been carried out.”
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