The decision by a New York appeals court judge to decrease the bond required for former President Donald Trump to appeal a civil fraud ruling by Judge Arthur Engoron to $175 million instead of over $450 million on Monday was criticized by a MSNBC commentator as a “miscarriage of justice.” Tristan Snell expressed his frustration with the ruling, calling it “flawed” during an interview with MSNBC host Jose Diaz-Balart.
“Honestly, this is so infuriating I don’t even know what to do. I don’t even know if I care what the process is that these judges are arriving at,” Snell told Diaz-Balart. “Whatever it is, it’s flawed. I can tell you that much. David put it well. This is a different process for this person. We have decided that he gets his own private court of justice. He has a private plane. He has private clubs that he lives in. He basically has fashioned himself his own private militia to try to take over the Capitol. Now he’s getting his own private system of justice. This is an absolute travesty.”
Engoron had previously determined that Trump was responsible for fraud on September 26, directing the revocation of several business licenses held by Trump and the closure of his businesses. However, an appeals court temporarily halted Engoron’s decision on October 6.
“The appellate court has now just decided they’re going to swoop in and just change it, and that’s it, and now the AG’s office can now try to go up above them, I believe, you know, I don’t know what the details are because you just told us,” Snell continued. “I’m guessing this is coming from the First Department, Appellate Division, First Department, that’s the intermediate court here in New York that would be issuing a decision here.
“I don’t know if there’s a remedy for the AG’s office to go up to the court of appeals, which is our high court here in New York and try to get them to basically countermand this order, but in my view, this is without knowing more, unless there’s some sort of other extenuating circumstance that we’re going to learn here, this appears to be an absolute gross miscarriage of justice,” Snell added.
Engoron faced criticism from legal professionals for rejecting a reduced bond amount, which was deemed “confiscatory.” Additionally, Democratic Attorney General Letitia James of New York received backlash for appearing to “gloat” about the court’s decision. In September 2022, James filed a lawsuit against Trump, accusing him of inflating the worth of his properties to secure loans. This legal action stemmed from her 2018 campaign for attorney general, during which she referred to him as an “illegitimate president.”