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Serial Felon Freed by Trump Back Behind Bars

Jonathan Braun, who was granted a pardon by Trump in 2021 thanks to a family connection to Jared Kushner, is headed back to prison.

Despite being gifted a Get Out of Jail Free card courtesy of President Donald Trump, convicted felon Jonathan Braun can’t seem to stop breaking the law.

Braun, a convicted drug trafficker and loan shark from New York, was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison on Monday after being found guilty of a litany of crimes, including physical and sexual assault.

Following his release from federal prison in 2021 after being pardoned by Trump, Braun has been hit with a variety of new accusations. Among them: verbally threatening and swinging an IV pole at a nurse, groping a live-in nanny, evading more than 75 tolls in his black Ferrari and white Lamborghini and assaulting a three-year-old—all while he was under the federal equivalent of parole, The New York Times reported.

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Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto, a George W. Bush appointee, sentenced Braun to 27 months—though he will only have to serve 20 due to previous time spent in custody this year, having been in federal detention since April. Braun will also have to serve three and a half years of supervised release and undergo six months of inpatient treatment for drug abuse and mental illness, Matsumoto ruled.

Braun, 42, was granted clemency in January 2021 during the final moments of Trump’s first term as president, thanks to a family connection to Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.

Braun had been serving a 10-year prison sentence for his role in a massive marijuana smuggling operation that he pleaded guilty to in 2011, but wasn’t sentenced for until 2019. His cooperation regarding a federal investigation into predatory lending, in which he offered information about his loan shark business, also reportedly contributed to his early release.

Law enforcement officials believe the decision to commute Braun’s sentence damaged the investigation into predatory lending by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, The New York Times reported.

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Braun’s former live-in nanny testified in court that on Feb. 15, Braun entered her room, placed her in a headlock and groped her, placing her hand over his bare genitals.

Braun’s other violations include a failure to pay a $100,000 fine that was imposed at his 2019 sentencing and his assault against a nurse with an IV pole, among others. He remained free until April, when he was charged with assaulting a child. He was subsequently arrested and detained for violating the terms of his supervised release.

Braun’s lawyer wrote in a filing last month that the incarceration had “saved” his client’s life and that he has now been seeing a psychiatrist and is committed to sobriety. Prosecutors, however, argued that Braun had implied similar sentiments before his 2019 sentencing in an attempt at leniency.

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Vic VerbalaitisNight Breaking News Reporter

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