Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Ex-editor admits to cyberstalking
N.Y. plea deal reached; U.S. case ended in pardon by Trump
NEW YORK — A former newspaper editor who received a pardon from former President Donald Trump pleaded guilty Wednesday to state cyberstalking charges in New York in a deal that drops the case pending the editor’s behavior.
Manhattan prosecutors said they will withdraw Ken Kurson’s misdemeanor counts of attempted computer trespass and attempted eavesdropping in a year if he performs 100 hours of community service and stays out of trouble.
Kurson, a friend of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, was charged in August with hacking his wife’s online accounts and sending threatening, harassing messages to several people amid heated divorce proceedings in 2015.
Kurson, the editor of the New York Observer when it was owned by Kushner, sometimes monitored his now-ex-wife’s computer activity from his desk at the newspaper’s Manhattan offices, prosecutors said. The state case mirrored a federal case against Kurson that was discontinued when Trump pardoned him i n January 2021 in the f inal hours of his White House term. Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, not state offenses.
Assistant District Attorney Alona Katz said in court Wednesday that Kurson has gone more than six years without reoffending and has taken steps to prevent such behavior.
As part of Kurson’s plea deal, prosecutors reduced his original felony charges of eavesdropping and computer trespass to misdemeanor attempt charges. If he meets the other terms, then prosecutors will exchange those charges for harassment, a low-level offense that is categorized as a violation, not a crime, under state law. A check- in hearing is scheduled for May 18.
A message seeking comment was left with Kurson’s lawyer.
Kurson, of South Orange, N.J., was the first person in Trump’s orbit charged by local prosecutors after being pardoned by the former president.
The federal case against Kurson, who now works in the cryptocurrency industry, arose from a background check when Trump offered Kurson a seat in 2018 on the board of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Manhattan prosecutors started investigating Kurson for possible violations of state law once Trump pardoned him.
In explaining the pardon, the Trump White House cited a letter from Kurson’s ex-wife in which she said she never wanted him investigated or arrested and “repeatedly asked for the FBI to drop it.”
According to Manhattan prosecutors, Kurson monitored her computer keystrokes in 2015 and 2016 using spyware, obtained passwords and accessed her Gmail and Facebook accounts. In October 2015, prosecutors said, he accessed and then anonymously disseminated her Facebook messages.
According to a criminal complaint, she told police in his New Jersey town that he was “terrorizing her through email and social media, causing her problems at work and in her social life.”