Republican presidential candidate former President Donald J. Trump makes remarks during a campaign event at Precision Custom Components on August 19, 2024 in York, Pennsylvania.
Tierney L. Cross | Getty Images
A New York federal judge ordered Cadet in USA officials to investigate the recent arrest of a convicted drug dealer who was released in early 2021 when his 10-year sentence was commuted by former President Donald Trump.
The order raises the possibility that drug dealer Jonathan Braun could be sent back to prison on a federal marijuana conviction following his arrest last week in Nassau County, New York, for allegedly assaulting his wife and father-in-law. . .
It also raises the prospect that Brown could become an issue in the 2024 presidential election, where Trump is trying to portray Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor, as soft on crime.
Braun, a 41-year-old who has also worked in the predatory lending industry, remains on probation pending his sentencing Brooklyn, New York, federal court for conspiracy to import marijuana and money laundering.
“Probation will continue to investigate this matter and will inform the Court of your findings and appropriate recommendations will be offered at that time,” Brooklyn Federal District Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto wrote in an order reviewed in the case. of Braun’s drugs, following news that Braun had been arrested. on state charges in Nassau County.
The document containing the judge’s order is sealed by the public.
When CNBC asked Braun’s attorney, Marc Fernich, about Matsumoto’s order, the attorney ignored the question.
Instead, he said in an email to CNBC, “Mr. Braun was arrested in Nassau County in connection with an alleged domestic disturbance.”
“He was released on his own recognizance after pleading not guilty and will take the charges to court,” Fernich said.
John Marzulli, a spokesman for the Brooklyn U.S. attorney who prosecuted Brown in the drug case, declined to comment on the order.
Brown had served more than five years in prison when his sentence was commuted by Trump on Jan. 20, 2021, Trump’s last day in the White House. Braun was subsequently released from prison as a result of this clemency.
He was arraigned last week in Nassau County District Court on assault charges. Prosecutors say he attacked his 75-year-old father-in-law last Tuesday, punching him twice in the face as the elderly man tried to protect his daughter, Brown’s wife, from him. Brown is also accused of physically assaulting his wife on July 17 and August 12.
He is also charged with petty theft for failing to pay $160 in bridge tolls while driving a Lamborghini and Ferrari, which do not have license plates, through about 40 different crossings.
Brown was released without bond over the objections of the Nassau County District Attorney, who asked a judge to set bail at $35,000.
A spokeswoman for Trump’s presidential campaign last week said, “President Trump wants criminals to spend time behind bars” when asked about Brown’s recent arrest.
A Manhattan federal judge in February fined Braun $20 million in a civil case where the Federal Trade Commission had sued him for predatory lending practices.
“The evidence … shows that Mr. Braun not only personally participated in this illegal conduct, but he did so cheerfully, with little remorse,” Judge Jed Rakoff wrote in that ruling, citing emails Braun had sent .