berg80
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- Oct 28, 2017
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New York drug dealer whose prison sentence Trump commuted 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 from Braun. Separately, Braun was also accused of assaulting that woman, his wife, 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.
Trump’s Last-Minute Pardon Frees Man Still Facing Accusations of Violence
President Donald J. Trump’s late-night commutation of a 10-year prison sentence being served by a drug smuggler named Jonathan Braun made the action sound almost routine. The White House said only that upon his release, Mr. Braun would “seek employment to support his wife and children.”
What the White House did not mention is that Mr. Braun, a New Yorker from Staten Island who had pleaded guilty in 2011 to leading a large-scale marijuana smuggling ring, still faces both criminal and civil investigations in an entirely separate matter, and has a history of violence and threatening people.
As recently as two and a half years ago, Mr. Braun was accused of throwing a man off a deck at an engagement party. Federal prosecutors said in a court proceeding that he threatened to beat a rabbi who borrowed money to renovate a preschool at his synagogue. “I am going to make you bleed,” he told the rabbi, according to court documents, adding, “I will make you suffer for every penny.”
Trump’s Last-Minute Pardon Frees Man Still Facing Accusations of Violence (Published 2021)
Jonathan Braun’s 10-year sentence for running a drug ring was commuted by the departing president. The White House did not mention that he faces separate accusations of violence and threats.
www.nytimes.com
There is a formal process involving the DoJ the WH is supposed to go through for folks who apply for a pardon or a commutation of a sentence. A review board normally takes a look at each case and makes a recommendation to the prez.
That process was circumvented as trump doled out clemency to friends, allies, donors, witnesses who did not cooperate with investigations that involved him and his campaign, and those who could help him politically. Does anyone really think a review board would have recommended the pardon of convicted felon Roger Stone?
This is the kind of demonstrable corruption you're voting for if you vote for His Orangeness.