Judge jails Trump clemency recipient Jonathan Braun after child assault arrest

Judge jails Trump clemency recipient Jonathan Braun after child assault arrest


The seal of the US Department of Justice in Washington, DC on March 21, 2024. 

Mandel Ngan | Afp | Getty Images

A New York federal judge on Friday ordered the jailing of convicted drug dealer and predatory lender Jonathan Braun, whose 10-year prison sentence was commuted in 2021 by President Donald Trump, after a string of arrests over the past seven months.

Braun was arrested last weekend on Long Island on state charges of assaulting an acquaintance and that man’s three-year-old child, The New York Times revealed Tuesday.

Before that, he was arrested four other times on state charges, including for allegedly assaulting his wife and his 75-year-old father-in-law, groping a nanny’s breast, menacing health-care workers with an IV pole at a Long Island hospital, and petty larceny, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn.

Those arrests led the U.S. Probation Office to charge Braun with seven violations of his supervised release, which continued after his release from prison in 2021. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting him.

Brooklyn U.S. District Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto ordered Braun detained during an arraignment hearing Friday, ruling that he is a danger to the community and a flight risk. Braun pleaded not guilty at a hearing.

“The behavior is erratic,” Matsumoto said at the arraignment, The Times reported. “There’s the potential someone could really get hurt.”

Read more CNBC politics coverage

The judge scheduled a hearing on the violations for next Thursday.

Braun had served more than five years in federal prison for a conviction of conspiracy to import marijuana and commit money laundering when Trump commuted his criminal sentence on Jan. 20, 2021, hours before leaving the White House.

That act of executive clemency left Braun on supervised release in his federal criminal case.

The New York Times previously reported 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 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.

Braun was fined $20 million in February 2024 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.



Source

Elon Musk deflects question about report of drug use, family drama as Trump looks on
Politics

Elon Musk deflects question about report of drug use, family drama as Trump looks on

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks alongside U.S. President Donald Trump to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on May 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday deflected a reporter’s effort to ask the mega-billionaire about a New York Times article detailing his alleged […]

Read More
Trump, Elon Musk to hold joint event as DOGE loses its leader, top staffers
Politics

Trump, Elon Musk to hold joint event as DOGE loses its leader, top staffers

President Donald Trump on Friday will host a press event to celebrate Elon Musk as the Tesla CEO concludes his official government service after four turbulent months leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Musk’s scheduled departure comes at a precarious moment, both for DOGE and for his relationship with the president. Multiple top staffers […]

Read More
France’s Macron calls on Europe and Asia to unite as U.S.-China tensions flare
Politics

France’s Macron calls on Europe and Asia to unite as U.S.-China tensions flare

TOPSHOT – France’s President Emmanuel Macron reacts during a meeting with Vietnam’s President Luong Cuong sat the Presidential Palace in Hanoi on May 26, 2025. (Photo by Nhac NGUYEN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by NHAC NGUYEN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) Nhac Nguyen | Afp | Getty Images SINGAPORE — French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday […]

Read More