A New York lobbyist and lawyer connected to a presidential pardon granted by Donald Trump in November has been accused of trying to extort a former client and his son over an alleged $500,000 debt.
Joshua Nass, 34, was arrested Friday after being charged in federal court in Brooklyn with attempted extortion under the Hobbs Act. Prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice allege that Nass threatened a client with payment he claimed was owed for his services.
Nass allegedly provided an anonymous individual with a phone number and directions while instructing him to visit the client at his home. It was an attempt to intimidate the customer into paying, as prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, Nass told the individual in question to “do anything” to force payment, including “physically assaulting” the client’s son or “forcing him into a car with masked men and threatening to have someone in (the son’s) family pay Nass.”
Nass also allegedly told the individual that he could not be a “human being” to the client’s son if the client refused to pay. Nass allegedly agreed to pay the individual “at least $15,000 for his continued efforts.”
“As alleged, Nass planned the violent extortion of one of his own clients and hired an individual to ‘do anything’ to force the client’s son to pay for services,” said a statement from US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr of the Eastern District of New York.
FBI Deputy Director James Barnacle said that “rather than honestly representing his client, Joshua Nass allegedly decided to extort him by hiring an enforcer to extort money from him.”
Nass faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the charges. He was scheduled to make his first court appearance on Saturday.
Nass played a role in Trump’s Nov. 14, 2025, pardon of Joseph Schwartz, who had been convicted in Arkansas of owning a nursing home empire that had failed to pay nearly $40 million in employment and payroll taxes, and had been charged with Medicaid fraud.
Neither Schwartz nor his son are mentioned in the government press release.
But Nass conspicuously reported in a public filing that he was paid $100,000 toward the end of 2025 “for advocacy related to executive pardon and post-conviction relief, including advocacy for the federal presidential pardon and subsequent efforts to pursue expedited parole and state-level relief in Arkansas.”
Separately, in documents related to the extortion case against the lawyer, prosecutors allege that the son of Nass’s client facilitated a payment of $100,000 of the $600,000 owed for lobbying services.
In early March, the New York Times reported that Schwartz had connected with Trump through Nass and his connections with pro-Israel evangelicals.
Nass told the outlet that “the pardon reflects the belief that people are capable of redemption.” Referring to the numerous pardons Trump has granted during his second presidency, Nass added that Trump “has shown a willingness to give deserving people a second chance, and he should be praised for that.”
The case against Nass comes amid accusations that Trump’s clemency system is shaped by lobbyists, although White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has rejected that 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.
