A convicted New York drug dealer and Loan shark who was released from a 10-year sentence in a federal prison after commute In 2021, then-President Donald Trump was arrested on assault charges, court records show.
Jonathan Braun was accused in court documents in Nassau County, Long Island, of attacking his 75-year-old father-in-law on Tuesday as he tried to guard his daughter from Braun. Separately, Braun was also accused of attacking that woman, his wife, last month and again last week. The New York Times reported.
Court records show that Braun pleaded not guilty to 3 counts at his arraignment Wednesday and was released without bail on those charges.
He was also charged with petty theft in Nassau County Superior Court, which the Times said was related to allegations that he didn’t pay a $160 bridge toll while driving a Lamborghini and a Ferrari, each cars without license plates.
Braun was fined $20 million in February by Jed Rakoff, a Manhattan federal judge, in a civil case by which the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Braun for usurious lending practices.
“The evidence … shows that Mr. Braun not only personally engaged in this illegal conduct, but did so with glee and little remorse,” Rakoff wrote in his ruling, citing emails Braun sent in regards to the loans.
CNBC has asked Braun's attorney, Marc Fernich, for comment.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Republican presidential candidate Trump, said in a press release about Braun's arrest: “President Trump wants criminals to spend time behind bars, unlike Kamala Harris, who wants to abolish bail.”
Vice President Harris is the Democratic presidential candidate.
Braun had already served greater than five years of his prison sentence for conspiracy to import marijuana and money laundering when Trump granted him clemency on January 20, 2021, just hours before he left the White House.
Because of his conviction, he stays on probation, meaning he could potentially be sent back to federal prison if a judge finds he violated the terms of his release.
The Times reported last fall that Trump's commutation had thwarted prosecutors' ongoing efforts to barter a cooperation agreement with Braun that might have released him from prison in return for providing details about other loan sharks for a criminal investigation.
The Times also reported that Braun's family used its connections to the family of Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, then a senior White House official, to secure the then-president's pardon.
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