A well-connected Trumpworld lawyer/lobbyist was charged with extortion after allegedly hiring an individual to threaten a former client into settling $500,000 in debt.
Joshua Nass, 34, was arrested on Friday and arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn on Saturday after he was accused of recruiting an individual to “do anything and everything” to force a former client and the client’s son—identified by the Department of Justice only as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2—into paying $500,000 that they owed him for services he rendered.
“Rather than honestly representing his client, Joshua Nass allegedly chose to shake him down by hiring an enforcer to extort payment,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Barnacle said in a statement.
Nass was released on a $5 million bond after a brief court appearance, according to The Guardian.
Nass’ website touts that he is “connected,” and states that he specializes in “executive-branch advocacy.” On social media, he has posted images of himself with MAGA figures, including Donald Trump Jr., at Mar-a-Lago.
According to court filings, Nass enlisted the services of a New York-based individual in January and regularly met with him through March, believing that John Doe 1 could settle the debt through an insurance policy linked to his son.
Nass and the individual spent weeks cooking up a plan to extort the son, including forcing him outside of his home and into a car and physically assaulting him.
At one point, according to the filings, Nass allegedly instructed the person he hired not to behave “like a human being” while dealing with John Doe 2.
Though Nass’ targets were never named, court and disclosure filings suggest that John Doe 1 is Joseph Schwartz, a New York man in his late 60s who was sentenced to three years in prison last April over a $38 million nursing home tax fraud scheme in Arkansas. He was pardoned by President Donald Trump just months later, on Nov. 14, 2025.
In January, Nass stated in a lobbying disclosure that he was paid $100,000 between November and December 2025 for “advocacy concerning executive clemency and post-conviction relief, including federal presidential pardon advocacy and subsequent efforts to obtain expedited parole and state-level relief in Arkansas.”
Court filings noted that John Doe 2, the unnamed son of Nass’ client, facilitated the December payment of $100,000 out of $600,000 owed for lobbying services.
The New York Times previously cited Schwartz’s clemency as a sign of a growing pay-for-pardon industry.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed any suggestions that Trump’s clemency decisions were influenced by lobbyists.
“Anyone spending money to lobby for pardons is foolishly wasting their money and the president doesn’t even know who these so-called ‘lobbyists’ are,” she told The Times.
“The Trump administration has a robust pardon review process,” she added, calling Trump “the final decider.”
Neither Nass nor the White House immediately responded to a request for comment on this story.
