Lawrence man Jonathan Braun sentenced to prison after violating terms of release from 2021 commutation from Trump

Jonathan Braun, a Lawrence man who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering in 2011, was sentenced again on Monday.

Braun was released from federal prison after Donald Trump commuted his sentence at the end of his first term in the White House.

Braun was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison by District Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in 2021 for failing to adhere to the terms of his supervised release. He will only serve 20 of those months as he has been detained in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since this spring.

Despite the commutation, the terms of his supervised release included strict behavioral guidelines and a fine of $100,000, both of which Braun violated according to federal prosecutors.

Matsumoto ruled Braun must serve almost two years for a series of misdemeanor and felony charges, including sexually assaulting his live-in nanny and threatening both an ER nurse and a congregation member of his synagogue, according to The New York Times.

Braun was also accused of dodging tolls on the Atlantic Beach Bridge at least 40 times in his Lamborghini and Ferrari without license plates, the assault of a three-year-old, and the alleged assaults of his wife and his 75-year-old father-in-law, reported Newsday.

Braun has been the subject of numerous civil suits claiming that he made more than a dozen high-interest loans to small businesses, in violation of 2023 court orders from Judge Jed Rakoff, which barred money lending. Plaintiffs alleged Braun was providing loans with interest rates “as high as 500%, hiding his involvement through shell companies run by his cousin and other court associates,” according to published reports.

During his most recent hearing, prosecutors requested a five-year sentence, citing his pattern of violent behavior. Braun’s public defense attorney, Kathryn Wozencroft, argued that mental health and drug issues were to blame for erratic behavior over the last few years, according to Newsday.

The defense requested a sentence of time served and a mandatory drug treatment program, citing that he had become sober while behind bars. The New York Times reported that Braun’s defense used the same argument of rehabilitation through time served in his 2019 trial.