Aug 22, 2024 - 16:58
By nbcnews.com

New York drug dealer, predatory lender previously commuted by Trump arrested on assault charges

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 on assault charges, court records show.

Jonathan Braun was accused in court filings in Nassau County, Long Island, of assaulting his 75-year-old father-in-law on Tuesday as he was trying to protect his daughter — Braun's wife — from Braun. Separately, Braun was also accused of assaulting that woman last month and again last week, The New York Times reported.

Court records show Braun pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Wednesday to three counts of assault and was released on those charges without bail.

He was also accused in Nassau County Supreme 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.

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.