Jonathan Braun, a drug smuggler, on Friday made an obscene gesture toward people in the courtroom and complained about his legal representation.
A violent felon whose sentence was commuted by President Trump was arrested Friday and charged with violating the terms of his supervised release after he was accused of a string of crimes that included assaulting a 3-year-old child.
The man, Jonathan Braun, was arraigned in Federal District Court in Brooklyn before Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto.
Prosecutors asked Judge Matsumoto that Mr. Braun be held indefinitely without bail. The judge, noting the violent nature of Mr. Braun’s accused repeated offenses, ordered that he not be released.
“The behavior is erratic,” Judge Matsumoto said at the arraignment. “There’s the potential someone could really get hurt.”
Mr. Braun, wearing a beige hooded sweatshirt, appeared agitated throughout the proceeding. He complained about his legal representation and gave the middle finger to people sitting in the courtroom.
“I could’ve gone to law school myself,” he told Judge Matsumoto. “I chose not to.”
It was the fifth time that Mr. Braun had been arrested since Mr. Trump commuted his 10-year sentence just before leaving office in 2021, which was among a raft of last-minute clemencies granted to those with ties to the president. Mr. Braun’s sentence was commuted after his family used a connection with Charles Kushner, the father of Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law who was a senior White House adviser, to get the matter before Mr. Trump.
