A convicted drug smuggler and loan shark pardoned by then-President Donald Trump in 2021 was arrested earlier this month for assaulting his wife and her 75-year-old father.
Nassau County, New York, court records say that Jonathan Braun, 41, has been charged with assault with injury on a person 65 or older, two counts of assault with intent to cause injury, and one count of petit larceny, Law&Crime reports.
Those charges stem from two incidents in July and August. On July 17, Braun allegedly threw his wife off a bed and onto a floor “causing her substantial pain and bruising her legs,” the court records say. Nearly a month later, on August 12, he again threw his wife on the floor and punched her in the head, then punched her father in the face twice when he tried to intervene while he was chasing his wife through the house.
The larceny charge is not connected and relates to his attempts to drive his Lamborghini and Ferrari over a Long Island toll bridge without paying tolls and without having license plates affixed to either car.
Trump pardoned Braun in January 2021, erasing his convictions for importing marijuana and money laundering and a judgement in a predatory lending civil case for which he was liable for a $20 million fine. New agencies, including the New York Times, CNN, and the Staten Island Advance, called him an international drug smuggler with a “history of violence and threatening people” and who was facing other criminal charges when he was pardoned.
Braun was arraigned on the new charges on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty, CNBC reported. The judge in the case issued protection orders for the victims. Bruan is due in court again on August 29.
