New York lawyer linked to Trump pardon charged with attempted extortion | Brooklyn
A New York lobbyist and lawyer linked to the presidential pardon Donald Trump issued in November has been charged with attempting to blackmail a former client and the client’s son over an alleged $500,000 debt.
Joshua Nass, 34, was arrested Friday in federal court in Brooklyn after being charged with attempted Hobbs Act extortion. U.S. justice department prosecutors allege that Nass threatened a client with payment he claimed was owed to him for his services.
Nass allegedly gave a telephone number and address to an unnamed individual while instructing the individual to visit the client at his home. According to prosecutors, it was an effort to intimidate the client into paying.
According to prosecutors, Nass told the person in question to “do anything” to force payment, including “physically assaulting” his client’s son or “putting him in a car with masked men and threatening to force someone inside.” [the son’s] the family pays Nass”.
Nass also allegedly told the individual that he could not be a “human being” if the client’s son refused to pay. Nass allegedly agreed to pay the individual “at least $15,000 for his continued efforts.”
“As alleged, Nass planned to violently extort one of his own clients and hired someone to ‘do anything’ to force his client’s son to pay for services,” said Joseph Nocella Jr., a U.S. attorney for the eastern district of New York.
“Instead of representing his client honestly, Joshua Nass chose to shake him down by hiring an enforcer to allegedly extort payments,” FBI deputy director James Barnacle said.
Nass faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He was scheduled to make his first court appearance on Saturday.
Nass, who appeared in court briefly on Saturday, was released on $5 million bail. Five properties, two in New York and three in South Carolina, and $50,000 in cash were secured. GPS was also built into the electronic monitoring system.
Nass starred in Trump’s November 14, 2025 forgive The story of Joseph Schwartz, who was convicted and charged with Medicaid fraud in Arkansas for owning a nursing home empire that failed to pay nearly $40 million in employment and payroll taxes.
Neither Schwartz nor his son are named. government press release.
But Nass conspicuously reported in a public filing that he was being paid $100,000 toward the end of 2025 “for advocacy on executive pardons and post-conviction relief, including efforts to advocate for federal presidential pardons and subsequent efforts to obtain expedited parole and state-level relief in Arkansas.”
Separately, in documents related to the extortion case against the lawyer, prosecutors allege that Nass’ client’s son brokered the payment of $100,000 of the $600,000 owed for lobbying services.
New York Times in early March reported He said Schwartz connected with Trump through his connections to Nass and pro-Israel evangelicals.
Nass told the press that “compassion reflects the belief that people are capable of salvation.” Citing the numerous pardons Trump issued during his second presidency, Nass added that Trump “has shown a willingness to give second chances to people who deserve it, and he should be commended for that.”
The lawsuit against Nass comes amid allegations that Trump’s leniency system was shaped by lobbyists; However, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied this claim.
“Anyone who spends money lobbying for pardons is foolishly wasting their money, and the president doesn’t even know who these so-called ‘lobbyists’ are,” Leavitt told the Times.
