A conservative lawyer and lobbyist has been indicted on extortion and stalking charges that appear connected to a client who was pardoned by President Donald J. Trump.
Josh Nass, who was arrested by F.B.I. agents in Manhattan last month, faces charges of extortion and cyberstalking in a six-count indictment unsealed on Thursday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn.
Mr. Nass, according to federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York, hired a man to violently extract $500,000 from a client. The client had already paid $100,000, prosecutors said. But Mr. Nass was owed more, and told the man he had hired to assault the client’s son or force him “into a car with masked men,” according to prosecutors.
The client has not been named in court papers. But filings and previous reporting from The New York Times suggest it is Joseph Schwartz, who hired Mr. Nass to help win clemency after he was convicted of fraud and tax crimes related to the collapse of a nursing-home empire.
Mr. Schwartz reported to prison in August, was pardoned by Mr. Trump in November and attended the White House Hanukkah party in December. Disclosure filings indicate that Mr. Nass began lobbying for Mr. Schwartz the day before he was pardoned.
In a statement Henry E. Mazurek, a lawyer for Mr. Nass, called his client ”an innocent man” and said the charges were “entrapment on steroids.”
“We look forward to trial and a quick acquittal,” Mr. Mazurek said.
Demand for pardon brokers like Mr. Nass has risen under Mr. Trump, who has often granted clemency to allies, bypassing the Justice Department’s system for vetting worthy recipients. Some in Mr. Trump’s orbit charge $1 million or more to those facing or serving jail time.
The White House has denied that Mr. Trump’s acts of clemency are influenced by lobbyists.
Mr. Nass has traveled in the circles around Mr. Trump, posting photos on social media with Donald Trump Jr. and Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel. Mr. Nass bought a $1.8 million condo at Trump Tower in 2021, according to The New York Post.
But court filings have painted a dark portrait of Mr. Nass and what prosecutors say was an aggressive scheme he devised to obtain his full fee.
The man Mr. Nass hired was working for law enforcement as a confidential witness and had his own checkered legal past, with convictions for racketeering and illegal firearms possession.
After Mr. Nass’s client said he could not pay him in full, asking instead for a payment plan, Mr. Nass bristled, according to prosecutors. In a meeting with the man he hired to extract his fee, according to prosecutors, Mr. Nass told the man that he intended to make his client pay “every penny of what they owe.”
He was “not going to court,” Mr. Nass said, adding, that’s not how he operated.
Santul Nerkar is a Times reporter covering federal courts in Brooklyn.
The post Conservative Lobbyist Hired Man to Violently Extort Client, U.S. Says appeared first on New York Times.
