- A convicted New York drug dealer and predatory lender who was freed from federal prison after his sentence was commuted in 2021 by then-President Donald Trump was arrested on assault charges.
- Jonathan Braun is accused in Nassau County court of assaulting his elderly father-in-law as he tried to protect his daughter from Braun and of assaulting her, The New York Times reported.
- Braun was fined $20 million in February by a Manhattan federal court Judge Jed Rakoff in a civil case where the Federal Trade Commission had sued Braun for predatory lending practices.
- Trump is now the Republican presidential nominee, and is set to face Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, the current vice president, in the 2024 election.
A convicted New York drug dealer and predatory lender who walked free from a 10-year federal prison sentence after it was commuted in 2021 by then-President Donald Trump has been arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife and her father, court records show.
Jonathan Braun, 41, is charged in Nassau County, Long Island, court with assaulting his 75-year-old father-in-law on Tuesday by punching him twice in the face with a closed fist as he was trying to protect his daughter from Braun, who is her husband.
Separately, Braun was also accused of assaulting that woman on July 17 by throwing her off a bed, “causing her substantial pain and bruising to her legs,” a criminal complaint in Nassau County District Court says.
Braun also is accused of punching her in the head multiple times on Aug. 12 after throwing her to the floor, the complaint says.
He was also accused in Nassau County District Court of petit larceny, which the Times reported is related to allegations he failed to pay $160 in bridge tolls while driving a Lamborghini and Ferrari, both of which lack license plates, over about 40 different crossings of the bridge.
Braun pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Wednesday to one count of second-degree assault on a person 65 years or older, and two counts of third-degree assault, as well as on the larceny charge.
He was released on those charges without bail after the Nassau County District Attorney’s office requested that bond be set at $35,000. A judge did issue orders of protection against him for the victims in the case.
Braun’s arrest was first reported Wednesday night by The New York Times and Bloomberg.
Braun was fined $20 million in February by Manhattan federal court Judge Jed Rakoff in a civil case where the Federal Trade Commission had sued Braun for predatory lending practices.
“The evidence … shows that Mr. Braun not only personally participated in this illegal conduct, but did so gleefully, with little remorse,” Rakoff wrote in a ruling, which cited emails Braun had sent about the loans.
Braun’s lawyer, Marc Fernich, in an email to CNBC said, “Mr. Braun was arrested in Nassau County in connection with an alleged domestic disturbance.”
“He was released on his own recognizance after pleading not guilty and will address the allegations judicially,” Fernich said.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the now-Republican presidential nominee Trump, in a statement about Braun’s arrest, said, “President Trump wants criminals to spend time behind bars unlike Kamala Harris who wants to end cash bail.”
Vice President Harris is the Democratic presidential nominee.
Braun had served more than five years of his prison sentence for conspiracy to import marijuana and commit money laundering when Trump granted him clemency on Jan. 20, 2021, hours before leaving the White House.
He remains on supervised release for his criminal conviction, which means he potentially could be sent back to federal prison if a judge finds he violated the conditions of his release.
The Times reported last fall that Trump’s commutation thwarted an ongoing effort by prosecutors to negotiate a cooperation deal with Braun that would have freed him from prison in exchange for his offering information about other predatory lenders for a criminal investigation.
The Times has also reported that Braun’s family used connections it had to the family of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was a senior White House aide at the time, to set in motion the clemency he received from the then-president.
