NEW YORK — New York City Police Department officials will meet with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday afternoon as Mayor Eric Adams’ administration is making the case to President Donald Trump that the nation’s largest city does not want or need federal troops on its streets.
The meeting — which Adams is not planning to attend — comes at a particularly tense time, with the White House escalating tensions with Democratic–led jurisdictions. Trump signed an executive order Monday morning threatening to revoke federal funding for states like New York that have laws limiting when judges can seek cash bail for people accused of crimes. The New York Post first reported on the order.
While the order doesn’t name New York, it’s clear the state and the city are in Trump’s sights. A White House press release Monday touted Trump’s “aggressive crackdown to end the failed experiment known as ‘cashless bail’” and cited four news stories about people released without bail in New York City and later accused of committing other crimes.
Spokespeople for the NYPD and City Hall confirmed plans for the meeting, which is expected to be held at police headquarters in Lower Manhattan. The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.
Bondi also plans to appear in Brooklyn federal court to mark the guilty plea of Mexican drug trafficker Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. While in the city, her team requested the NYPD meeting. Bondi has not yet met NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who has earned acclaim for her leadership of the department across the political spectrum since Adams appointed her in November.
Trump has sent National Guard troops into Los Angeles and Washington. Adams, who has cultivated a friendly relationship with Trump for a Democrat, has made clear he doesn’t want federal intervention.
“Our crime rate has dropped. Our subways are the safest they have been, except for the first two years during Covid-19 when no one was on them,” Adams said on "TMZ Live" last week. “We got this. We know how to keep this city safe. I knew it when I was a police officer. What we had to do, we did it then, and we're doing it again.”
But Adams was hesitant to criticize the executive order, even if it might cost the city federal funding.
“I’ve always made it clear that our revolving door system of violent offenders must be addressed,” Adams said at an unrelated campaign rally Monday, when asked to respond to Trump’s order. “We’ll read this executive order, and I’ll be able to tell you more.”
The Democratic-led state Legislature and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo passed laws in 2019 intended to keep more people out of jail while they awaited trial. The legislature rolled back the measures in subsequent years in response to political pushback from those who blamed them for a heightened crime rate, including Adams.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the executive order.
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