President Donald J. Trump\u2019s late-night commutation of a 10-year prison sentence being served by a drug smuggler named Jonathan Braun made the action sound almost routine. The White House said only that upon his release, Mr. Braun would \u201cseek employment to support his wife and children.\u201d<\/p>\n
What the White House did not mention is that Mr. Braun, a New Yorker from Staten Island who had pleaded guilty in 2011 to leading a large-scale marijuana smuggling ring, still faces both criminal and civil investigations in an entirely separate matter, and has a history of violence and threatening people.<\/p>\n
According to lawsuits filed in June against Mr. Braun and two associates by the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, and the Federal Trade Commission, Mr. Braun helped start and worked as a de facto enforcer for an operation that made predatory loans to small-business owners, threatening them with violence if they refused to pay up.<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan also have a continuing investigation into that operation, a person with knowledge of the investigation said Friday.<\/p>\n
As recently as two and a half years ago, Mr. Braun was accused of throwing a man off a deck at an engagement party. Federal prosecutors said in a court proceeding that he threatened to beat a rabbi who borrowed money to renovate a preschool at his synagogue. \u201cI am going to make you bleed,\u201d he told the rabbi, according to court documents, adding, \u201cI will make you suffer for every penny.\u201d<\/p>\n
How much Mr. Trump and his aides knew about Mr. Braun\u2019s past and his current legal troubles is not clear. In its announcement of the pardon this week, the White House appears to have substantially overstated how much of his 10-year sentence Mr. Braun had completed, saying he had served five years when he had only reported to prison a year ago. (The White House announcement also misspelled his first name, calling him Jonathon.)<\/p>\n
Mr. Braun\u2019s family had told people it was willing to spend millions of dollars for lawyers and others to try to get him out of prison, according to two people who have been in contact with the family members in recent months.<\/p>\n
No one registered under federal lobbying laws to make Mr. Braun\u2019s case to the Trump administration, though registration would not necessarily be required for legal representation. The White House announcement of the wave of 143 pardons and commutations early Wednesday, just hours before Mr. Trump left office, did not cite anyone who had backed the commutation of Mr. Braun\u2019s sentence.<\/p>\n
The lawyer Alan M. Dershowitz, who represented Mr. Trump in his first impeachment trial, said he \u201cplayed a very limited role\u201d in Mr. Braun\u2019s clemency push, \u201calmost exclusively\u201d advising his father about the clemency process, and was paid \u201ca very small amount of money\u201d for his assistance.<\/p>\n
Mr. Dershowitz said he believed Mr. Braun\u2019s argument for clemency was \u201cmeritorious,\u201d because Mr. Braun cooperated with prosecutors \u201cfor a good many years, and was told that his cooperation would be recognized and he didn\u2019t get that recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n
His case is the latest evidence of how far the pardon process under Mr. Trump had strayed from the rigorous Justice Department guidelines and screening that previous presidents had largely relied on for clemency recommendations.<\/p>\n
\u201cJonathan Braun has threatened small-business owners with violence, death and even kidnapping,\u201d Ms. James said. \u201cA federal commutation will not protect Mr. Braun from being held accountable in New York for the civil charges against him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interviews and court documents paint a portrait of Mr. Braun as a major drug smuggler who once beat one of his underlings so badly with a belt that Mr. Braun told others he had left the victim \u201cblack and blue.\u201d In another instance, he threatened violence against a woman who worked for him who was threatening to cooperate with prosecutors.<\/p>\n
In response to questions about the pardon, Mr. Braun\u2019s lawyer, Marc Fernich, declined to discuss how Mr. Braun had gotten his case in front of White House officials or who had represented him. But Mr. Fernich praised Mr. Trump\u2019s action.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Braun\u2019s 10-year sentence was grossly unreasonable \u2014 an extreme statistical outlier \u2014 on the facts and circumstances of his case,\u201d Mr. Fernich said in an email message. He said he applauded Mr. Trump\u2019s \u201ccourage in correcting what was a grave injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not return an email message seeking comment.<\/p>\n
Mr. Braun was indicted in 2010 and entered a plea deal in the drug case the next year after initially fleeing the country for Canada and Israel before turning himself in. He was not sentenced until 2019 and did not have to report to prison until last January.<\/p>\n
While free on bail after his guilty plea but before reporting to prison, he plunged into a new enterprise, helping run an operation that made loans to small-business owners at extremely high interest rates. According to the suits filed last year by Ms. James, the New York State attorney general, and the Federal Trade Commission, Mr. Braun regularly threatened those who had trouble repaying the loans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know where you live.\u201d Mr. Braun told a small-business owner who he claimed owed him money, according to court documents filed by Ms. James.<\/p>\n
Mr. Braun told the business owner he knew where his mother lived.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will take your daughters from you,\u201d he said, according to the suit.<\/p>\n
Mr. Braun is accused in the suit of telling another business owner: \u201cBe thankful you\u2019re not in New York, because your family would find you floating in the Hudson.\u201d<\/p>\n
Previous presidents relied on a Justice Department screening process for pardons that ensured they were being given in an evenhanded way and that those with money and connections were not receiving preferential treatment. But Mr. Trump largely disregarded that process and wielded his clemency powers unlike any previous president.<\/p>\n
The Constitution gives presidents the ability to issue pardons and commutations, a brake on the criminal justice system and a way to show grace and mercy. But Mr. Trump doled out clemency to friends, allies, donors, witnesses who did not cooperate with investigations that involved him and his campaign, and those who could help him politically.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the Justice Department process is short-circuited, and there\u2019s insufficient vetting \u2014 if you don\u2019t take the time to look at someone\u2019s history and potential other exposure \u2014 this is what you end up with: a process that appears corrupted by money and influence,\u201d said Daniel Zelenko, a white-collar defense lawyer at Crowell and Moring and former federal prosecutor and enforcement lawyer at the Securities and Exchange Commission.<\/p>\n
The full story of Mr. Braun\u2019s arrest, indictment and sentencing spans a decade and, according to prosecutors\u2019 statements in court and filings in his case, often unfolded like a crime thriller.<\/p>\n
In 2009, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration raided a house on Staten Island that Mr. Braun\u2019s drug trafficking network used to stash large stockpiles of drugs. Mr. Braun, who was in Florida at the time, learned from his underlings about the raid.<\/p>\n
Immediately, Mr. Braun rented a car and with at least one associate drove 25 hours to the New York border with Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the dead of night, dressed entirely in black and utilizing a motorless boat, Braun was ferried across the river into Canada, and remained there for several months, hiding out in one of the properties owned by his Canadian associate,\u201d according to court documents filed by the Justice Department.<\/p>\n
President Trump\u00a0has discussed potential pardons\u00a0that could test the boundaries of his constitutional power to nullify criminal liability. Here\u2019s some clarity on his ability to pardon.<\/p>\n