A convicted drug dealer who had his sentence commuted by President Donald Trump in 2021 was arrested again on Saturday after being accused of shoving a 3-year-old boy on Long Island, New York. The incident marks the man’s fourth arrest in all.
Jonathan Braun, 41, was charged with assault, endangering the welfare of a child and injuring a child under the age 7 after authorities say he punched an acquaintance in the face before shoving the man’s 3-year-old son to the ground, The New York Times reported, citing court documents. The boy sustained “a red mark on his back and substantial pain,” the documents said.
Court documents reviewed by HuffPost revealed that Braun’s legal troubles began in 2010, when federal prosecutors accused him of several drug-related offenses. He pleaded guilty in 2011 to importing marijuana and money laundering and was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
In the final hours of his first term, Trump granted Braun clemency after he had served five years in federal prison.
The White House did not provide an explanation for the sentence commutation. However, The New York Times reported that Braun used a family connection to the family of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, to try to get his case on Trump’s desk.
The White House said in a statement at the time that “upon his release, Mr. Braun will seek employment to support his wife and children.”
Court records show that Braun was fined $20 million in February last year following a lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission, which accused him of predatory lending practices.
The agency said his loan company would illegally withdraw money from customers’ accounts and sometimes physically threaten them with violence to pay.
“The evidence also shows that Mr. Braun not only personally participated in this illegal conduct, but did so gleefully, with little remorse,” the FTC wrote.
Months later, in August, Braun was charged with three counts of assault in New York’s Nassau County, The Associated Press reported at the time. In that case, Braun was accused of attacking his wife and her 75-year-old father at their home in Atlantic Beach.
