MSNBC guest melts down over judge slashing Trump's bond payment in NY civil fraud case
Tristian Snell, a guest on MSNBC and legal commentator, said he was infuriated by the decision to reduce Donald Trump's bond in the NY civil fraud case against the former president.
A guest on MSNBC Monday became infuriated by the judges' ruling in decreasing former President Trump's bond payment in the New York civil fraud case, and claimed Trump had his "own private system of justice."
Tristian Snell, the former New York assistant attorney general, was asked during MSNBC's "José Díaz-Balart Reports" about what the process might have looked like in a courtroom.
"Do we even need to ask? 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. Whatever it is, it’s flawed. I can tell you that much," Snell said. "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 continued. "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. It would not happen for anybody else, anybody else. It would be like, sorry, buddy, you lost. Pay up. For him, he gets his own set of rules."
Snell was also asked about how the judge arrived at the decision legally, and argued bluntly that it was a "gross miscarriage of justice."
MSNBC guest Tristian Snell joined host Jose Diaz on Monday to discuss Donald Trump's new bond payment in his civil fraud case.
"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," he said. "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."
David Henderson, a former prosecutor, joined Diaz and Snell as well and suggested Trump was getting special treatment.
"The playbook is different for former President Trump. We were literally talking about this the last time you and I discussed this case. I expect for them to do something for him that’s different than what you see for everybody else when they go to court. So here he’s given more time to pay less money. That’s what it comes down to," Henderson said.
An appeals court slashed Trump's bond payment on Monday, saying Trump must pay $175 million within the next 10 days.
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16, 2024. (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump had previously faced a Monday deadline to pay a $454 million bond payment in the New York civil fraud case, stemming from New York AG Letitia James' allegations against the former president, Fox News Digital previously reported.
After Díaz-Balart read some of the ruling, Snell went on to argue it should not have happened and said the people of New York deserved better.
"They just drop a bomb on this, and they don’t give us any explanation at all. Yeah, that’s enormously frustrating, and I would say it’s wrong. It just shouldn’t have happened. It shouldn’t happen this way. We deserve, the public, the people, the state of New York deserve better than to have this happen," he said.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, center, greets attendees during a Super Tuesday election night watch party at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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"We deserve better out of our judicial system than to have something like this happen where we’re not actually even getting to find out what the Wizard of Oz is doing behind the damn curtain. This is ridiculous," he continued.
Trump said he will "abide" by the appeals decision and post the $175 million bond.
If Trump does post the $175 million by the new deadline, it would effectively block James from attempts to seize Trump's assets as he continues to appeal the judgment by New York Judge Arthur Engoron.
Fox News' Brooke Singman and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.