President Donald Trump on Monday signed a series of executive orders aimed at eliminating cashless bail in D.C. and throughout the country as part of his efforts to crack down on crime.
“We’re ending it, but we’re starting by ending it in D.C., and that we have the right to do by federalization,” Trump said during a press conference in the Oval Office.
The orders threaten actions such as revocation of federal funds and grants if the capital city, or other jurisdictions across the country with similar policies, declines to change the approach.
In D.C. specifically, one order’s objective is to hold “as many criminal defendants in federal custody and subjecting them to federal charges as possible,” according to White House staff secretary Will Scharf, who spoke during the briefing.
Trump indicated he was looking at cashless bail — which allows the release of defendants without paying any money, with a look at factors like flight risk instead — during his 2024 campaign.
“When I’m reelected, I will crack down on the left-wing jurisdictions that refuse to prosecute dangerous criminals and set loose violent felons on cashless bail,” he said on the trail.
Democrats in support of bail reforms have faced campaign difficulties as Republicans continue to hammer them for being “radical” and “soft” on crime.
In 2022, New York Democrats scaled back their support for cashless bail after losing county office seats and facing warning signals in states like Illinois and California.
“This was a nationally coordinated campaign by the Republicans, and we did not, frankly, rise to the occasion to explain to people what we did do and how the point was and still is not to criminalize poverty — it’s to criminalize criminals,” New York state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said in an interview at the time.
