Drug dealer granted clemency by Trump sent back to prison for violating terms of release | US news

A convicted drug trafficker who benefited from Donald Trump’s pardon was returned to federal prison Monday for violating the conditions of his release after being charged with several new crimes.

Jonathan Braun was sentenced to 27 months in prison.

The Long Island man was accused of brandishing an IV pole at a hospital nurse and threatening to kill her, yelling at a member of his synagogue, groping his family’s nanny and evading bridge tolls.

Brooklyn federal judge Kiyo Matsumoto said she hoped Braun’s “expressions of remorse” and promises to “live a law-abiding life” were in good faith, noting that many people he harmed have since forgiven him.

“Don’t waste it,” she told Braun.

Prosecutors had sought a five-year prison sentence, the maximum allowed, arguing that a long stay behind bars was “necessary to protect the public from further crimes.”

“The defendant’s brazen and violent conduct caused fear and terror in his victims,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing before his sentencing. Braun, they said, continued to show that he poses a “serious danger to the community.”

Braun has been incarcerated in a federal prison in Brooklyn since his arrest in April for violating the conditions of his release. This time will be subtracted from his sentence.

Braun was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in 2019 after pleading guilty to drug charges. He spent about a year behind bars before the US president commuted his sentence in the final days of his first term in January 2021.

Braun was released from prison, but the remainder of his sentence remained intact, including the requirement to pay a fine and stay out of trouble.