A man who President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of near the end of his prior term in office in 2021 was recently arrested for assaulting a male acquaintance and a 3-year-old child, according to a report.
This Tuesday, The New York Times said that that 41-year-old Jonathan Braun was arrested last Saturday on Long Island, citing court documents. He allegedly punched the man in the face and then proceeded to shove his child to the ground, “causing a red mark on his back and substantial pain” to the child’s back.
Braun was charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child and injuring a child under the age of 7, said the Times. According to the outlet, this marks the fourth time Braun has been arrested since Trump commuted his federal prison sentence.
In early March, Bloomberg reported that Braun had been arrested Feb. 28 “for a second time since his release and charged with grabbing a nanny in a sexual manner.”
Citing court records, the outlet said that Braun was arrested in Nassau County, N.Y., on one misdemeanor count of forcible touching. It said the nanny told a detective that Braun entered her bedroom on Feb. 15 and grabbed her while rubbing his genitals. He pleaded not guilty.
Bloomberg described Braun as a “loan shark,” and the Times said that he is a “major player in the predatory lending business.”
Braun was among 70 people Trump commuted the sentences of on Jan. 20, 2021, along with 73 people who he pardoned. At that time, the Trump administration said that Braun had served five years of a 10-year sentence for conspiracy to import marijuana and to commit money laundering.
“Upon his release, Mr. Braun will seek employment to support his wife and children,” said the former Trump administration’s statement.
According to the Times, “Braun’s family used a connection to Charles Kushner, the father of Jared Kushner,” Trump’s son-in-law, husband to his daughter Ivanka and former White House advisor to Trump, to get the matter before Trump. It said that Jared Kushner’s White House office actually “drafted the language used to announce commutations for Mr. Braun and others.”
Charles Kusnher was identified as a “real estate developer and political contributor,” in a 2005 press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. That release announced that Kushner was sentenced to 24 months in prison “for his pleas of guilty to assisting in the filing of false tax returns, retaliating against a cooperating witness and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission,” and he was eventually pardoned by Trump in 2020.
Once Braun’s sentence was commuted, Braun “returned to predatory lending only to be banned from operating in that business by a New York State judge and a federal judge for engaging in deceptive practices,” the Times said. He has also been accused of the following, according to the outlet: punching his wife and father-in-law in the head; grabbing a nanny’s breast while touching himself; trying to assault a female nurse with poles used to hold intravenous bags and threatening a synagogue congregant who asked him to be quiet during services.
After his arrest on the most recent charges, Braun was released Monday on bail. Robert Caliendo, a lawyer for Mr. Braun, did not respond to messages from the Times seeking comment.
While pardons are typically associated with the end of a president’s term, Trump made headlines this year for pardoning participants in the 2021 Capitol riot, including members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, which have been identified as hate groups. The Intercept also reported Wednesday that a corporation was included in a “flurry” of pardons Trump issued to white-collar criminals last week.
“The move surprised scholars of presidential pardons, which have traditionally been considered the domain of human beings,” not corporations, said the outlet.