Convicted drug dealer freed by Trump headed back to jail after string of alleged violent episodes: prosecutors
A convicted drug dealer freed by President Trump was sent back to jail Friday after being charged with injuring a 3-year-old child, groping his live-in nanny, and other violent episodes.Jonathan Braun, 41, squandered his chance at freedom after breaking the terms of his supervised release with a slew of Nassau County arrests in recent weeks, Brooklyn federal prosecutors said.Trump commuted Braun’s decade-long sentence for orchestrating a marijuana distribution ring on the last day of his first term in 2021.But Braun, who took a picture with Trump at one of his Florida golf courses in 2022, has been nabbed several times since, including for allegedly punching a man during a Shabbat dinner Saturday night at his Nassau County home, court papers say.He then shoved the man’s three-year-old to the ground, “causing a red mark on his back and substantial pain,” according to a criminal complaint.The convicted marijuana distributor— whose family has ties to Trump ally Charles Kushner — also menaced a man praying at a synagogue, groped his nanny’s breast while he masturbated, and assaulted a hospital nurse in separate incidents in recent months, prosecutors say.“Do you know who I am or what I can do to you?” he shouted at the congregant who had asked him to be quiet in a January incident, court papers allege.Judge Kiyo A.
Matsumoto cited Braun’s alleged spree of “erratic” violent episodes and held him without bail Friday for breaching the terms of his supervised release.“I am concerned about the nature of the offenses.People are getting hurt,” Matsumoto said at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court.
She noted that she has seen photos of the injuries in at least one of the episodes.“My concern is there are repeated instances of violence and showing lack of stability,” the jurist added.Braun had posted bail in the Nassau County state cases.He was arrested again, however, by the U.S Marshals Service Friday morning at a Long Island hotel.Wearing a ...