Trumpworld Lawyer Busted in $500K Extortion Scheme

A lawyer and lobbyist with extensive connections within the “Trumposphere” has been charged with extortion following allegations that he hired an individual to threaten a former client and coerce him into settling an unpaid debt of $500,000.

Joshua Nass, 34, was arrested on Friday and appeared in federal court in Brooklyn on Saturday. He is accused of recruiting an individual to do “whatever it takes” to force a former client and his son—whom the Department of Justice identified only as “John Doe 1” and “John Doe 2″—to repay the $500,000 they owed him for services rendered.

In a statement, James Barnacle, the FBI Assistant Director overseeing the case, said: “Rather than honestly representing his client, Joshua Nass allegedly chose to extort him by hiring someone to carry out threats, with the aim of extorting the money owed.”

According to The Guardian, Nass was released on $5 million bail following his brief court appearance.

Nass’ website boasts that he is a “well-connected” individual and notes that he specializes in “executive branch advocacy.” Nass has also posted photos on social media showing him alongside prominent figures of the “MAGA” movement—the slogan of Trump’s presidential campaign—including Donald Trump Jr.; these photos were taken at the Mar-a-Lago resort.

According to court filings, Nass solicited the services of a New York-based individual in January and met with him regularly until March, operating on the premise that “John Doe 1” could settle his unpaid debt through an insurance policy linked to his son.

Nass and the individual he had hired spent weeks hatching a plot to extort the son—a scheme that involved forcibly removing him from his home, dragging him into a car against his will, and physically assaulting him.

At one point—again, according to court documents—Nass allegedly instructed the individual he had hired not to behave “like a human being” in his interactions with “John Doe 2.”

Although the identities of the individuals targeted by Nass have never been explicitly revealed, court documents and public statements suggest that “John Doe 1” is Joseph Schwartz—a New Yorker in his sixties who was sentenced last April to three years in prison for his involvement in a $38 million tax fraud scheme linked to an Arkansas nursing home. President Donald Trump granted him a presidential pardon just a few months later—specifically on November 14, 2025.

In January, Nass disclosed in a filing regarding his lobbying activities that he had received $100,000 between November and December 2025 in exchange for “advocacy efforts regarding executive clemency and post-conviction legal remedies; including efforts to secure a federal presidential pardon, subsequent efforts to secure expedited parole, as well as remedies at the Arkansas state level.”

Court filings revealed that an individual identified as “John Doe 2″—the unnamed son of Nass’s client—had facilitated the payment of the $100,000 installment in December; this sum constituted a portion of the total $600,000 owed for political lobbying services.

The New York Times had previously cited the pardon granted to Schwartz as a sign of the rise of a “pay-for-pardons industry.”

For her part, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt rejected any suggestion that the pardons granted by Mr. Trump had been influenced by lobbying efforts.

“Anyone spending money to lobby for a pardon is wasting their funds senselessly,” Ms. Leavitt told the Times. “The President doesn’t even know who these so-called ‘lobbyists’ are.

” She added: “The Trump administration has a rigorous and systematic review process for pardon requests,” describing Mr. Trump as the “final decision-maker.”

Neither Nass nor the White House immediately responded to a request for comment regarding this report.