By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK, April 24 (Reuters) – A lobbyist who helped a nursing home owner convicted of tax fraud secure a pardon from President Donald Trump has been indicted on extortion charges, court records showed.
Attorney Joshua Nass, founder of lobbying firm Merkava Strategies, faces six criminal counts stemming from an attempt to extort money from three people, according to an indictment in Brooklyn federal court made public on Thursday evening.
• Nass was arrested in March on charges of hiring someone to intimidate a former client and his son into paying him $500,000. Court papers did not identify the former client, but two people familiar with the matter said it was Joseph Schwartz, the nursing home owner who received a pardon last year.
• Court records had previously indicated that Nass was in plea talks with federal prosecutors. The indictment, which paves the way for Nass’ case to continue toward trial, signals that those talks have not resulted in an agreement.
• Nass has not entered a plea. His lawyer, Henry Mazurek, said Nass had never harassed, threatened or committed violence against anyone, and that the case was “created” by the government and an informant.
• “Josh never took the government’s bait. This indictment is an attempt to humiliate Josh for doing the work of obtaining pardons for those serving long prison sentences,” Mazurek said in a statement.
• A spokesperson for the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s office declined to comment.
• Congressional lobbying records show Nass agreed to represent Schwartz in connection with petitioning for a pardon. Trump pardoned Schwartz on November 14, three months after he began serving a three-year prison sentence.
• Trump, during his second term in the White House, has made far earlier and more frequent use of the president’s unchecked clemency powers than his predecessors.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York, Editing by Franklin Paul)
