Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks from a bulletproof glass booth during a campaign rally at the North Carolina Aviation Museum & Hall of Fame in Asheboro, North Carolina, U.S., August 21, 2024.
Jonathan Drake | Reuters
A convicted New York drug dealer and loan shark who unscathed a 10-year sentence in federal prison after then-President Donald Trump commuted it to probation in 2021 has been arrested for the alleged attack on his wife and her father, court records show.
Jonathan Braun, 41, is accused in a Nassau County court on Long Island of attacking his 75-year-old father-in-law on Tuesday, punching him twice in the face as he tried to protect his daughter from Braun, her husband.
Braun was also accused of assaulting the woman on July 17 by throwing her out of bed and causing her “significant pain and bruising to her legs,” according to a criminal complaint filed in Nassau County District Court.
Braun is also accused of hitting her in the head several times on August 12 after throwing her to the ground, the indictment says.
He was also charged with petty theft in Nassau County District Court. The incident, according to the Times, is related to allegations that he failed to pay $160 in bridge tolls despite driving a Lamborghini and a Ferrari – both without license plates – across the bridge at more than 40 different locations.
Braun pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Wednesday to one count of second-degree assault on a person 65 years of age or older, two counts of third-degree assault and one count of theft.
He was released without bail on those charges after the Nassau County District Attorney's Office requested a $35,000 bond. A judge issued protective orders against him to protect victims in the case.
Braun's arrest was first reported in the New York Times and Bloomberg on Wednesday evening.
Braun was fined $20 million in February by Jed Rakoff, a Manhattan federal judge, in a civil case in 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 about the loans.
CNBC has asked Braun's lawyer, Marc Fernich, for comment on his re-arrest.
Read more about CNBC's political coverage
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Republican presidential candidate Trump, said in a statement 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 more 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 remains 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 negotiate a cooperation agreement with Braun that would have released him from prison in return for providing information 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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