On Monday, an appeals court in New York lowered the bond requirements on former President Donald Trump concurrent with his expected appeals in a civil case successfully alleging fraud brought by state authorities.
A bond covering the full amount of his penalties — which, when including interest, neared half a billion dollars — was to be required to stave off collections during the appeals process, but the appeals court agreed to lower the required bond to $175 million.
“This is an absolute travesty. It would not happen for anybody else,” Tristan Snell, formerly with the New York state Attorney General’s office, remarked on MSNBC this Monday. “Anybody else, it would be like, ‘Sorry buddy, you lost, pay up.’ For him, he gets his own set of rules.” Asked about the presently unfolding legal and procedural circumstances, the former state law enforcement figure in New York said he was unsure about possibilities for reversing the appeals court’s decision. But in the meantime, he was insistent on characterizing the decision for Trump as bucking what should be done.
“This appears to be an absolute gross miscarriage of justice,” Snell added.
Trump was consistent in the days leading up to this week’s deadline for the initially required bond in characterizing the set-up as fundamentally unfair to him. His claims repeatedly had just no real-world basis, whether that was the allegation that New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the case, was taking direction from the White House or the idea that the bond requirements were something uniquely used against him rather than part of regular procedure in New York.
Though the appeals court lessened what Trump now needs to produce to keep collections at bay during appeals of the judgment against him in the fraud case, a monitor appointed by the trial judge who oversees a wide range of aspects to the Trump family business will continue their work.
