Jonathan Braun, drug dealer whose sentence was commuted by Trump, charged with domestic violence at Long Island home

A convicted drug dealer whose sentence was commuted by then-President Donald Trump beat his wife and punched her father when he tried to protect her in their Atlantic Beach home, according to Nassau prosecutors.

Jonathan Braun, 41, was charged with second-degree assault on an elderly person and third-degree assault for punching his 75-year-old father-in-law in the face twice.

The man told police that on Tuesday he tried to intervene in an argument between his daughter and Braun, court papers show. The father said Braun chased the woman down the stairs and out the front door, according to the court document.

"I followed them down the stairs to protect my daughter," he told police according to an affidavit filed in Nassau County Court. "When I got to the bottom of the stairs, Jonathan faced me and punched me twice with a closed fist."

Last month, on July 17, his wife told police that Braun threw her from the bed to the floor, causing bruising on her legs. On Aug. 12, she said, he threw her to the floor again and punched her in the head multiple times, court papers show.

Originally from Brooklyn, Braun was also charged with racking up $160 in unpaid tolls on the Atlantic Beach Bridge. He was recorded driving his Italian sports cars through the toll plaza 40 times without paying.

"Defendant Jonathan Braun used two different vehicles to evade these tolls, a white Lamborghini Urus and a black Ferrari convertible, and neither of them were bearing any license plates while in commission of these thefts," according to the complaint.

He pleaded not guilty on Wednesday before Judge Arieh Schulman. The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office requested he be held on $35,000 bail, but the judge released him on his own recognizance.

District Attorney Anne Donnelly said that they disagreed with the judge's decision and continue "to thoroughly review the evidence in this case and prepare for prosecution."

Without going into details, Braun's lawyer said that his client is innocent.

"We believe that the case will be resolved in a favorable disposition," his lawyer, Arthur Gershfeld, said. "These are mere allegations and my client denies the allegations."

Braun, who fled to Israel in 2009 to avoid prosecution for money laundering and conspiracy to import marijuana into the United States from Canada, eventually returned and pleaded guilty in 2011.

Federal prosecutors charged that Braun used threats and actual violence to collect on drug debts and prevent co-conspirators from cooperating with authorities.

He was not sentenced until 2019, when he got 10 years behind bars.

On Jan. 19, 2021, Trump commuted his sentence — one day before leaving office.

The former president's campaign press staff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Before he was sentenced, Braun was accused in a lawsuit filed by the New York attorney general and the Federal Trade Commission of threatening small business owners while managing two loan collection agencies. The collection firms were sued for charging "astronomically high" interest rates, charging undisclosed fees and making unauthorized withdraws on merchant accounts.

Braun acted as an enforcer, authorities said.

"I will take your daughters from you," he told one merchant, according to court records.

He also threatened to come to one business owner’s Brooklyn synagogue and "publicly embarrass him," according to the attorney general's office.

Prosecutors said Braun told another man, "I am going to make you bleed."

In February, Manhattan federal Judge Jed Rakoff ordered Braun to pay more than $20 million for his part in the scheme.

"This extensive misconduct is made all the more egregious by the fact that Mr. Braun boasted about his illegal conduct and treated it as a laughing matter, evidencing little remorse for his illegal conduct," the judge wrote in his decision.

CORRECTION: Jonathan Braun punched his wife and father-in-law during encounters in his Atlantic Beach home. A previous version of the story misstated the type of alleged assault.