Federal authorities in New York have arrested and charged a lobbyist — one who had labored on behalf of an ex-nursing house operator pardoned just lately by President Donald Trump — with making an attempt to power a former consumer and his son to pay him $500,000, based on paperwork.
Joshua Nass, 34, of Charleston, South Carolina, was scheduled to seem Saturday earlier than a Justice of the Peace choose on an tried extortion cost unsealed Friday, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Jap District of New York stated.
Nass might withstand 20 years in jail if convicted.
Court docket paperwork allege that beginning in January Nass recruited and agreed to pay what the federal government calls a confidential witness to power the previous consumer and intimidate his son into paying the quantity that Nass claimed was owed for the consumer’s providers.
The daddy and son are named in court docket paperwork solely as “John Doe 1” and “John Doe 2.”
“Quite than actually representing his consumer, Joshua Nass allegedly selected to shake him down by hiring an enforcer to extort cost,” James Barnacle Jr., assistant director answerable for the FBI’s New York area workplace, stated in a information launch.
“The FBI prioritizes crushing violent crimes offenses and extortion schemes.”
A federal lobbying disclosure type filed with the U.S. Home and Senate dated Jan. 15, signed digitally by Nass and overlaying remaining three months of 2025 listed Joseph Schwartz as a consumer.
The shape stated the agency that Nass based generated an estimated $100,000 in earnings for lobbying actions for the reporting interval, with “federal presidential pardon advocacy” amongst his lobbying points.
Trump had pardoned in November a person named Joseph Schwartz who had pleaded responsible in federal court docket in 2024 for his function in a $38 million employment tax fraud scheme involving nursing properties he owned throughout the nation.
Schwartz operated New Jersey-based Skyline Administration Group.
Reached by cellphone, John Marzulli, a spokesperson for the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace, stated Saturday he had no remark about whether or not the allegations in opposition to Nass are associated to actions involving Schwartz.
Nass was arrested exterior of his New York resort on Friday, the identical day he had anticipated to satisfy with the confidential witness, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace stated.
Nass’ legal professional didn’t reply instantly to e-mail and textual content messages searching for touch upon the case.
In response to a letter from the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace, Nass agreed in December to supply lobbying providers to the consumer, who signed an settlement to pay Nass $600,000 in change for the providers.
The son helped make a $100,000 cost however stated he couldn’t then pay the complete quantity and requested for “a cost plan,” which Nass seen as an “insult,” the letter stated.
Nass, who can also be a licensed legal professional in New York, had instructed the witness to go to the son’s New York-area house to compel cost, however the son shut the door on him after being instructed Nass had despatched him, court docket paperwork allege.
Between January and March, Nass and the witness mentioned methods the witness might extort the cost, together with assaulting the son or forcing him right into a automobile with masked males and threatening him, based on the federal government’s information launch.
Nass stated he didn’t need the witness to behave “like a human being with” the son, an FBI agent’s signed affidavit stated.
