Josh Nass, a lawyer and lobbyist with connections in President Trump’s orbit, was arrested by F.B.I. agents on Friday afternoon in Manhattan and charged with attempted extortion, according to court papers.
Mr. Nass, who has connections in conservative Jewish and evangelical circles, had recently been paid $100,000 to pursue clemency for Joseph Schwartz, who was convicted of tax crimes related to a nursing-home empire that had collapsed amid allegations of endangering the residents and defrauding his employees.
Joseph Nocella Jr., the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a statement issued Saturday morning, accused Mr. Nass of having “plotted the violent extortion of one of his own clients.”
Mr. Nass had been paid $100,000 by the client, but was owed an additional $500,000, according to court papers in the case unsealed on Saturday. The filings claim that Mr. Nass instructed someone he hired to “do anything and everything” to collect the outstanding funds from the client’s son.
The papers strongly suggest that the targets of Mr. Nass’s threats were Mr. Schwartz and one of his sons, though they are not named.
Mr. Nass, 34, is expected to be arraigned Saturday in Brooklyn.
Mr. Nass’s efforts on behalf of Mr. Schwartz were detailed in an article this month in The New York Times.
An associate of Mr. Nass said that he was arrested on Friday in Midtown Manhattan after leaving a meeting at a hotel about securing business from other clemency seekers.
Mr. Nass could not be reached for comment. One of his lawyers, Marc Agnifilo, said he would comment after reviewing the charges. Mr. Schwartz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Schwartz had pleaded guilty in 2024 to tax crimes in federal and Arkansas courts related to his failure to pay nearly $40 million in employment and payroll taxes, as well as to a state Medicaid fraud charge in Arkansas. He was sentenced to three years in federal prison.
He retained several lobbyists and lawyers last year to push for clemency from Mr. Trump.
Mr. Schwartz reported to prison in August, but he was pardoned and freed by Mr. Trump in November.
The White House has denied that Mr. Trump’s clemency decisions are shaped by lobbyists.
Shortly after Mr. Schwartz’s release, he and one of his sons took Mr. Nass to dinner to thank him for his assistance, according to a person familiar with the episode. It appears to be the same son who Mr. Nass is accused of attempting to extort.
Mr. Schwartz also attended the White House Hanukkah party.
Mr. Schwartz subsequently reported to state prison in Arkansas. He was released on parole in January after only two and a half weeks by a board appointed by the governor.
In disclosure filings in December and January, Mr. Nass reported that he began lobbying for Mr. Schwartz in November, the day before the pardon was signed.
The filings indicate that Mr. Nass was paid $100,000 between his hiring and the end of the year to lobby Congress, the Justice Department and the State Department about “executive clemency and post-conviction relief, including federal presidential pardon advocacy and subsequent efforts to obtain expedited parole and state-level relief in Arkansas.”
Kenneth P. Vogel is based in Washington and investigates the intersection of money, politics and influence.
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