Drug Smuggler Who Was Pardoned By Donald Trump Arrested for Fourth Time After Shoving 3-Year-Old to Ground
Even though they were pardoned and released from prison, dozens of men freed by President Donald Trump seemed determined to find their way back to confinement.
Perhaps none more than convicted marijuana smuggler Jonathan Braun, who used a connection to Charles Kushner, the father of the president’s son-in-law, to receive clemency. He was arrested for the fourth time on Saturday in Long Island after allegedly punching an acquaintance in the face and then shoving the man’s 3-year-old child to the ground.
The push left a red mark on the child’s back along with “substantial pain,” court documents said. Mr. Braun faces charges of assault, endangering the welfare of a child and injuring a child under the age of 7.
Once a major player in the predatory lending sector, Braun was banned from the business by a New York judge for deceptive practices in a civil case filed by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC said Braun ran a loan company that illegally withdrew money from customers’ accounts and sometimes threatened physical violence to get them to pay. Jurors slapped him with a $20 million judgment.
He’s also shown a penchant for violence. According to The New York Times, he’s been accused of punching his wife and father-in-law, who’s nearly 80 years old, in the head, groping a woman’s breast while touching himself, assaulting a nurse, and threatening a synagogue attendee who requested he be quiet during a service.
“Do you know who I am or what I can do to you?” Mr. Braun reportedly responded, according to an affidavit.
In his second term, Trump has made liberal use of the president’s pardon and commutation powers. One of his first moves was granting clemency to about 1,500 people who had been convicted or charged in connection with the 2021 Capitol riot.
Braun, sentenced to 10 years for smuggling and selling $1.72 billion in cannabis between 2007 and 2010, was not in Washington that day. He was just getting out of prison, released at the end of Trump’s first term. He served only two-and-a-half years of his sentence.
Recidivism is a common theme among the Trump pardons. Among those convicted for activities on Jan. 6, three were re-arrested for crimes against children.
Theodore Middendorf, who pleaded guilty to destruction of property, is back in prison, serving a 19-year sentence after pleading guilty to committing an act of sexual penetration against a 7-year-old.
David Daniel, who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers on Jan. 6, is being held without bond after being charged with “Production of Child Pornography” and “Possession of Child Pornography” allegedly “involving a prepubescent minor” and a child under 12 years old.
The government also suggests Daniel, who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers, “engaged in sexual acts” with two young girls in his own family.
Meanwhile, in Texas, Andrew Taake, who was serving a six-year prison sentence for assaulting police officers with bear spray and a “metal whip” on Jan. 6, is facing 2016 charges of soliciting a minor online.
He also had a prior criminal case that remains unresolved. Taake allegedly sent sexually explicit messages to someone he thought was a 15-year-old girl, but was, in fact, an undercover law enforcement officer.
In addition to those three, NPR identified several other Jan 6 defendants with prior convictions or pending charges for crimes, including rape, domestic violence, manslaughter, and drug trafficking.
Braun was released on bond Monday morning and awaits a court date.
