REVEALED: Donald Trump commuted sentence of drug dealer Jonathan Braun who’s now gone back to being a LOAN SHARK: Crook is accused of using close tie to Jared Kushner to secure prison release

New details have emerged about Donald Trump’s decision to commute the sentence of a prolific drug dealer on his last day in office, including the crook’s ties to the political family that could have set him free, a report says .

Staten Islander Jonathan Braun, 40, had served two and a half years of a decade-long sentence for running an illegal marijuana cartel when the former president released him along with 142 others.

Now, a photo of Braun and his wife Miriam with Trump at the former president’s Florida resort from April 2022 has surfaced, along with his political connections.

Braun was a freshman at Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston, New Jersey, which was funded by the family of Ivanka Trump’s husband, Jared Kushner, according to the New York Times.

A source told the Times that the father of the accused loan shark – Jacob Braun – approached Kushner’s father – Charles Kushner – in 2020 about the possibility of seeking a pardon from the then-president.

It has now been revealed that Braun had family ties to Trump’s in-laws. (Image: Josh Kushner (left), Charles Kushner (center) and Jared Kushner attend The New York Observer’s New Look on April 1, 2014 in New York)

Others associated with Braun also told investigators that his family helped secure his release from prison through their contacts with then-Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner and his family, the Times said.

His eventual release from New York Otisville Federal Correctional Facility came despite the New York AG issuing press releases about their civil actions against Braun in June 2020 while he was behind bars.

Braun was accused of acting as a loan shark and offering loans at astronomically high interest rates.

Along with three other loan sharks uncovered by the investigation, Braun was ordered to forgive tens of millions of dollars in illegal debt owed to thousands of small businesses across America, some with interest rates as high as 1,000 percent, according to the AG’s website.

Another press release issued during Trump’s final hours in the White House on January 20, 2021, announced Braun’s commutation among another 142 convicts who received pardons in the latest batch.

“Upon his release, Mr. Braun will seek employment to support his wife and children,” the release said.

That happened despite Braun being accused of violently threatening eight people who owed him money, saying he would “destroy their businesses” and “violate them and their families,” according to court documents seen by DailyMail.com.

A real estate developer said Braun told him, “I can literally make your life hell” and “I will destroy you” after he told his bank to suspend charges to Braun’s business account because of an unauthorized charge of $ 10,000.

He even said to the entrepreneur: ‘I know where you live. I know where your mother lives. I’m taking your daughters away from you,” and “you have no idea what I’m going to do,” according to legal documents.

“Be thankful you’re not in New York because your family might find you floating in the Hudson,” Braun told another business owner, according to the documents, while telling others, “I’ll kill you,” “we know where you are’. live’ and ‘I’m going to make you bleed’.

That happened despite Braun being accused of violently threatening eight people who owed him money, saying he would “destroy their businesses” and “violate them and their families,” according to court documents were accessed by DailyMail.com.

A Texas gun store owner said he felt so threatened by Braun’s behavior that he started carrying a gun, something he had never done before.

Another man even accused Braun in a lawsuit of pushing him off the deck of a Staten Island home in 2018, according to the Times.

He was indicted in May 2010 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on drug trafficking conspiracy charges.

The accused loan shark pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to import marijuana and money laundering in November 2011, and the court granted his release on an $8 million bond, subject to a supervision order.

He was convicted in May 2019 and charges of serving as a loan shark surfaced.

In September of this year, it was revealed that just months after Trump released him, Braun allegedly began preying on borrowers again by offering loans, according to the New York attorney general and the Times.

A New York judge banned Braun from working in the industry that same month, and weeks later he was issued a nationwide ban following a complaint from the Federal Trade Commission.

‘Mr. Braun and his company targeted small business consumers with a blatant array of tactics, from predatory contract terms to violent threats, and the court’s opinion is a significant victory for them,” said Samuel Levine, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection FTC. October 2023 issue. “This case makes clear that the FTC will fight back against those who prey on small businesses.”

The FTC had indicted Braun in June 2020 – while he was still behind bars. Now he is no longer allowed to make any cash advances, is not allowed to collect debts and must remove the negative credit information he filed.

Trump signs a pardon in the Oval Office in August 2020

However, in a recent phone conversation, Braun downplayed his reported connection. Braun said in a telephone conversation with the Times that he knew nothing about the discussions that led to his commutation.

“I believe God allowed this to happen for me because I am a good person and I was treated unfairly,” he said. Braun added that his friends had tried “several avenues” to get him out of jail, but he didn’t know which one had worked.

He also denied any wrongdoing as a lender and had never met Jared Kushner. Braun added that the April 2022 photo of him and his wife on a golf course with Trump was not related to his commutation but was a chance meeting.

“I didn’t meet him because of what happened, I just happened to be there at the same time,” Braun told the Times.

DailyMail.com has contacted the press offices of Jared Kushner and Donald Trump for comment.