Hochul defends bail laws, says judges need to ‘step up’ amid Trump’s threats of funding cuts in executive order

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday defended New York’s bail system and pointed to falling retail theft numbers as evidence that “crime is down” one day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order threatening to cut off federal funding to states he claims have “dangerous” bail policies.

Trump’s order, signed Monday, directs U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to compile a list of jurisdictions that the president claims “substantially eliminated” cash bail for crimes such as violent assaults, sex offenses, burglary, looting, and vandalism. He asserted that those policies, in his view, “pose a clear threat to public safety and order.”

Although New York has not yet been officially named as a jurisdiction, the White House has repeatedly highlighted cases involving repeat offenders released under the state’s bail laws. “It started in New York, and it’s been a horrible thing for crime,” Trump reportedly said in the Oval Office.

At a press conference in Harlem on Tuesday morning, Hochul rejected Trump’s claims, stressing that New York does not have a cashless bail system.

“The President’s wrong. He’s flat out wrong. We don’t have cashless bail in the state of New York,” Hochul said.

She pointed to changes made since the 2019 reforms originally eliminated bail for misdemeanors and non-violent felonies. Later revisions expanded the list of bail-eligible crimes and gave judges more discretion to detain repeat offenders.

At a press conference in Harlem on Tuesday morning, Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected President Trump’s claims, stressing that New York does not have a cashless bail system. “The President’s wrong. He’s flat out wrong. We don’t have cashless bail in the state of New York,” Hochul said.Darren McGee/ Office of Governor Kathy Hochul

Hochul said the problem is not the law, but judges failing to apply it.

“I’ve been surprised at the number of judges who don’t seem to know the law has changed,” she said, adding that they need to “step up.”

The governor tied those legislative changes to crime trends, announcing on Aug. 26 that retail theft in New York City fell 12% over the past year.

Since March 2024, she said, more than 1,000 arrests have been made in organized retail theft cases, with millions of dollars in merchandise recovered. Hochul said her administration has invested nearly $3 billion in public safety, expanded joint operations with the NYPD and offered tax credits to help small businesses buy cameras and security systems.

Standing guard amid falling crime in New York

Hochul said she spoke privately with Trump a few days about to explain the intricacies of New York’s bail laws and to push back on the prospect of him deploying the National Guard.

“Mr. President, I can give you all the data you need to show that crime is down. It’s working. Our policies are working. The NYPD is doing its job. We did our job in the state legislature to tighten up laws… serious crimes are down,” she said she told him.

Hochul said she also told Trump his earlier suggestions that he would deploy the National Guard to NYC to fight crime was unnecessary.

“There’s no reason for them to come here. I know where to find it here in New York. I’ve got what I need,” she said.

When asked about the contrast to Trump’s approach in Washington, D.C., with her deployment of the Guard to subway stations earlier this year, she said her use of troops was “wildly different” because they served only as a visible presence to calm anxious commuters, not to enforce laws.

“They had a calming effect,” she said. By contrast, she said Trump’s deployment in DC has seen troops ordered to “carry their guns and arrest people.”

On Monday, Trump signed a separate executive order creating a specialized National Guard unit that could assist local law enforcement in D.C., and potentially around the country. President Trump said the military is ready to go to any city to crack down on crime, even if the governor does not request its assistance, and the unit could be deployed “in quelling civil disturbances and ensuring the public safety and order whenever the circumstances necessitate.”

During Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump said he would “love” to send the National Guard to NYC upon Hochul’s request.

“I get along with Kathy,” Trump said of his phone call with Gov. Hochul. “If she’d like to do that, I would do it. I want to make this like, friendly.”

“I would love it to have these governors, mayors call me and say, ‘We’d like to invite you into our community because we have a problem and you can handle the problem and we can’t’,” he said.

Tisch to Trump’s AG: NYC is ‘under control’

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch at a press conference on Aug. 22, 2025.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell

Also on Monday, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch met with AG Bondi in which she “politely” highlighted that the National Guard was not needed and that the NYPD has the city “under control” during a “positive and productive” meeting, according to an NYPD spokesperson.

Tisch told Bondi that the city has seen record-low shooting incidents and shooting victims during the first eight months of the year. The spokesperson said the Quality of Life division has expanded to every precinct across the five boroughs, helping residents feel safer in their communities and showing early success.

Tisch also used the meeting to highlight the department’s use of drone technology as a “vital, innovative tool” for protecting New Yorkers and solving crimes, and requested local authority to take down potentially dangerous drones rather than relying on federal action.

After an NYPD detective was injured by friendly fire last week while confronting an alleged repeat offender in Queens, Tisch and Mayor Eric Adams both railed against the current state of New York’s bail laws. The NYPD spokesperson said that the agenda of the “introductory” meeting with Bondi, which happened just hours after Trump’s executive order on bail laws was signed, was set last week and that bail reform did not come up.

The Justice Department did respond to requests for comment on the meeting at the time of publication.

Advocates for bail reform argue the law has reduced racial and financial inequities in pretrial detention.

Brooklyn State Sen. Julia Salazar, who chairs the Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, said Trump’s order would punish poor and minority New Yorkers.

“How much money you have should never determine whether or not you spend your time before trial behind bars as a legally innocent person,” Salazar said in a statement. “We cannot tolerate these attacks on our people and on our civil liberties in New York.”