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New York|Felon Freed by Trump Is Sentenced Again, This Time to 27 Months
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/nyregion/jonathan-braun-resentencing.html
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A Brooklyn federal judge found that Jonathan Braun had violated the rules of his release by sexually assaulting a nanny, swinging an IV pole at a nurse and dodging tolls in his Lamborghini and Ferrari.
Nov. 10, 2025Updated 2:21 p.m. ET
A felon whose sentence President Trump commuted in the final hours of his first term was sentenced to 27 months in prison on Monday after being accused of a range of criminal conduct — including physical and sexual assault — since Mr. Trump freed him.
The sentencing of the man, Jonathan Braun, who had a long history of violence and in 2011 pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering, demonstrates how Mr. Trump’s handling of pardons and commutations has allowed some convicts to return to criminality.
Mr. Braun, whose family used a connection to Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to obtain the commutation in January 2021, is at least the eighth convict to whom Mr. Trump granted clemency during his first term who has since been charged with a crime. Several others pardoned more recently after being convicted of crimes committed during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol have also run into trouble with the law.
Mr. Braun, despite receiving a commutation from Mr. Trump, was still on supervised release, essentially a federal version of parole. But prosecutors said Mr. Braun had continued a pattern of violence, including sexually assaulting a nanny, swinging an IV pole at a nurse and threatening a congregant at his synagogue.
He was also accused of assaulting a 3-year-old, and was continuing to make usurious loans to struggling small businesses. Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto of Federal District Court in Brooklyn found this year that he had violated the terms of his supervised release, and federal prosecutors asked that the judge sentence him to five years in prison.
On Monday, Judge Matsumoto gave Mr. Braun 27 months, but he will have to serve only 20, because he was given credit for previous time in custody this year. The judge also said he must serve three and a half years of supervised release after his sentence, and undergo six months of residential treatment for drug abuse and mental illness.
