Dems blast Trump-pardoned LI criminal's new arrest

Daily Point

Koslow pokes Blakeman as mum on Nassau recidivist

Criminal recidivists with rap sheets can reside anywhere, including well-to-do enclaves in Nassau County. Not all of them, however, command extraordinary favors from the most powerful.

For at least the second time since President Donald Trump commuted his 10-year federal prison sentence in January 2021, Jonathan Braun, 41, of Atlantic Beach, was arrested — this time on Feb. 28 for allegedly groping his child’s nanny. He’s out on $150,000 bail.

Last time, in August, Braun was arrested on assault charges after allegedly shoving his wife to the ground and punching her repeatedly. Then he allegedly punched his father-in-law. He was released on his own recognizance. At the time, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement that her office disagreed with the judge’s decision to release Braun. Sources told Newsday that family members later became reluctant to cooperate in the case.

But in a county where Republicans have for years slammed state Democrats very effectively for easing the systemic release of repeat offenders through "cashless bail," Nassau Legis. Seth Koslow (D-Merrick) is underscoring Braun’s case as he campaigns against GOP County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is seeking a second term. Koslow accuses Blakeman of "hypocrisy" for not commenting on the case. A text from The Point to Blakeman’s spokesman seeking a response appeared electronically to have been received and read but went unreturned.

"Bruce Blakeman frequently portrays himself as tough on crime," Koslow said in a press release last week. "Yet he remains silent when someone politically connected to his party, residing in his own district, commits such a reprehensible act and is swiftly released on bail. Does justice only apply when convenient for your political allies, Mr. Blakeman?"

Braun’s Republican karma is well documented. The New York Times reported in November 2023 that Braun’s family used a connection to Charles Kushner to get the case before Trump. Kushner, the father of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, the former White House adviser, has become ambassador to France in the second Trump term.

Last Aug. 5, as part of Blakeman’s major fundraising drive for reelection, the elder Kushner contributed $10,000 to Blakeman’s campaign committee, according to state election filings viewed by The Point. Kushner’s own pardon, also issued by Trump in the waning days of his first term, is widely known. In 2005, he was convicted of witness tampering, tax evasion, and illegal campaign contributions. In the case prosecuted by then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, Kushner hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then cooperating with federal officials, to a New Jersey motel room with a hidden camera and sent the recording to his sister. Kushner served two years in federal prison.

Before Trump’s intervention, Braun served one of 10 years for a big hydroponic marijuana-smuggling scheme in which he used threats of violence and intimidation against others. But further legal embroilments, although not criminal, began not long after the commutation. A federal court upheld a finding by the Federal Trade Commission that Braun engaged in "extensive misconduct" for his role with RCG Advances. Among the charges was that he "used unfair collection practices, including sometimes threatening physical violence, to compel consumers to pay." He was banned from the merchant cash advance and debt collection industries, the FTC announced in October 2023.

In a lighter allegation of peculiar local interest, Braun was accused last year of evading $160 worth of tolls in the E-ZPass lane on the Atlantic Bay Bridge — by removing the license plates from a Ferrari and a Lamborghini he drove.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Fixing

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Reference Point

Butter battles

Newsday’s editorial board has never been shy about throwing itself into a hot issue. Such was the case this week in 1948 when the board waded into what was known as the butter battle — or perhaps more accurately, the margarine melee.

The two cooking substances had been at war since 1869 when margarine — originally made from animal fats but now made primarily from vegetable oil — was patented by a French scientist and the U.S. dairy industry launched a full-court press to stop it from gaining popularity in American kitchens. More than a third of the states banned the sale of margarine and lobbying pressure led Congress to pass a two-cent per pound tax on margarine, which later was raised to a dime. One House member from dairy state Iowa compared margarine to the witches’ brew in the Shakespeare play "Macbeth."

But margarine got a big boost during World War II when butter rationing forced consumers to try the alternative. And they liked it. And so began a campaign to repeal the federal tax. The push had not succeeded by March 19, 1948, when the board visited the topic in a piece called "The Anti-Margarine Mob," which congratulated New York’s State Legislature for suspending a ban on the use of margarine in taxpayer-funded institutions.

"Suspension of the archaic law is a step in the right direction, and better than Congress is doing in the butter battle," the board wrote, noting that the price of butter had risen that very day by another 5 cents per pound.

The board criticized congressional obstinance, noting that four of five American families used margarine and that the American Medical Journal had concluded after a two-year study that "margarine is a good source of table fat in growing children."

"The health of the American people, particularly those who cannot afford to buy dollar-a-pound butter in sufficient quantities, means nothing to greedy dairymen," the board wrote. "If it were not for restrictions imposed artificially on manufacture and marketing of margarine by Congress and various states, margarine could be bought at your grocery store for one-third the price of butter."

The butter battle sizzled for years. Congress finally ended the federal tax in March 1950. Slowly but surely, state bans were lifted with dairy king Wisconsin finally shedding its total ban in 1967. According to the Wisconsin Magazine of History, the state might have been shamed by a well-reported car trip by one Mrs. H.F. Musgrave across the Illinois border to buy some black-market margarine. "Well, I’m going to use it to make some cookies," she told reporters.

Butter maintained its supremacy among American consumers until the late 1950s, when margarine consumption overtook it and held that edge until 2005, when concerns about trans fats in margarine began to rise. Butter is king today.

As for Newsday’s current editorial board, we take no position on the question of butter vs. margarine other than to note that however you spread it, we’re glad Long Islanders have a choice.

— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com

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