Ken Kurson and Jared Kushner attend The New York Observer Celebrates Robert Kurson’s New E book PIRATE HUNTERS at The Rusty Knot on June 15, 2015 in New York Town.
J. Grassi | Patrick McMullan | Getty Pictures
Ken Kurson, a former New York newspaper editor and shut pal of Trump White Space senior guide Jared Kushner, pleaded to blame to decreased misdemeanor fees Wednesday in a case the place he was once accused of cyberstalking his ex-wife.
Kurson’s plea in Long island Best Courtroom comes greater than a yr after then-President Donald Trump pardoned the 53-year-old political guide in a federal prison case the place he were charged in overdue 2020 with cybercrimes towards different people.
Underneath the plea deal, Kurson might be required to accomplish 100 hours of group provider, with the expectancy that the fees might be decreased to a contravention in a yr, the Long island District Legal professional’s place of job informed CNBC.
The New Jersey resident ran the newsroom of The New York Observer newspaper, now printed on-line as Observer, when it was once owned via Kushner, the rich scion of a New York actual property extended family and the husband of Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump.
He additionally has labored as a expert for other folks corresponding to Rudy Giuliani, the previous New York mayor, most sensible federal prosecutor, and private attorney for Trump. Kurson helped run Giuliani’s failed 2008 presidential marketing campaign.
Kurson was once arrested in August on criminal fees of eavesdropping and prison trespass for having allegedly accessed his then-wife’s communications in 2015 and 2016 whilst operating as editor-in-chief of Observer Media Crew.
Prosecutors on the time stated Kurson used adware to acquire passwords and log into his spouse’s Gmail and Fb accounts, and likewise illegally bought and anonymously shared personal Fb messages.
On Wednesday, Kurson pleaded to blame to making an attempt to devote each crimes with which he was once at the start charged. The try fees themselves are misdemeanors.
As a part of his plea, Kurson agreed to accomplish 100 hours of group provider at a company matter to the approval of the Long island District Legal professional’s Workplace.
If he plays that paintings, and does now not devote some other crime within the period in-between, the DA’s place of job stated it is going to conform to him taking flight his to blame plea, and changing that with a harassment violation. That violation may by no means be sealed from public view, underneath the phrases of that deal.
Assistant District Legal professional Alona Katz informed Pass judgement on Josh Hanshaft that the DA’s place of job reached the deal after in depth discussions with Kurson, in addition to together with his ex-wife’s attorney, the prosecutor’s place of job stated.
Katz additionally famous that six years had handed with out Kurson committing some other crime, and that he has taken steps to decrease his probability of re-offending.
Kurson’s attorney Marc Mukasey didn’t respond to a request for remark via CNBC.
Kurson had based cryptocurrency and blockchain generation website online Fashionable Consensus. He was once at the board of cryptocurrency corporate Ripple as lately as 2020.
Deborah Copaken, a author who has printed a piece of writing through which she detailed Kurson’s alleged sexual harassment of her, known as his punishment a “slap at the wrist.”
“Group provider. For cyberstalking. K, advantageous, however what is the incentive to stay any person now from cyberstalking any person else if that is the end result?” Copaken wrote in a message to CNBC.
“Plus let’s have in mind: there are different sufferers, a lot of whom I have spoken to. The 3 sufferers from the crime for which he was once arrested then pardoned via Trump was once a fully other crime and worse, in some ways, as it wasn’t simply cyberstalking. It integrated in-person stalking. He burdened a physician at her administrative center! Confirmed up at her house. And worse.”
“As for me, I used to be sexually burdened via him, which isn’t a crime, even though it must be. Sexual harassment steals a girl’s livelihood. In the meantime, a handbag snatcher will cross to prison for stealing $5 from me whilst sexual harassers face no such penalties,” Copaken wrote.
“I remember the fact that the pass judgement on spoke to Kurson and his spouse about all of the steps he is taken to raised himself within the six years since, and I applaud and inspire all efforts at non-public transformation. However any efforts to reform oneself should come with making amends to these he is harmed, and thus far, I am nonetheless looking ahead to my apology.”
The similar DA’s place of job in Kurson’s case is investigating Trump’s corporate, the Trump Group, for imaginable crimes associated with hush cash bills made to girls who stated they’d intercourse with Trump, in addition to imaginable tax, financial institution and insurance coverage fraud.
The DA’s place of job final summer time criminally charged Trump firms and the Trump Group’s leader monetary officer Allen Weisselberg with a scheme to steer clear of paying taxes on government repayment.
The defendants have pleaded now not to blame.
Kurson was once federally charged via prosecutors within the U.S. Legal professional’s place of job within the Jap District of New York in October 2020 with allegedly cyberstalking 3 other folks.
The 2020 federal prison grievance in a footnote says that along with the 3 sufferers if that’s the case, “FBI Particular Brokers have additionally got proof revealing that Kurson engaged in a identical trend of harassment with regards to his divorce lawsuits towards different people between roughly September 2015 and December 2015.”
The prison grievance says that Kurson blamed one of the crucial sufferers, whom he were pals with for greater than two decades, “for the dissolution of his marriage.” The second one sufferer was once a co-worker and manager of the primary sufferer, the grievance says.
That behavior allegedly integrated “gaining access to electronic mail accounts and social media accounts with out their wisdom or authorization; putting in instrument on one particular person’s laptop to observe that specific’s keystrokes and website online utilization with out his/her wisdom or authorization.”
There was once additionally proof that Kurson contacted sufferers’ employers to make claims that come with a “false allegation of flawed touch with a minor,” in line with the grievance.
Trump granted Kurson a pardon on Jan. 19, 2021, his final night time in place of job, ahead of the case went to trial. It was once in a wave of last-minute pardons via the one-term president that he granted to political allies, pals of pals and others as he ready to depart the White Space.
In 2018, The New York Occasions famous that the FBI had investigated allegations that Kurson burdened a physician at Mount Sinai Health center in Long island. The physician was once a long-time pal of Kurson and his then-wife, who had been getting divorced on the time.
His first arrest got here two years after he withdrew his identify from attention for a Trump management appointment to the board of the Nationwide Endowment for the Humanities.
Prior to he withdrew his identify, in March 2018, Copaken wrote a piece of writing in The Atlantic entitled “Learn how to Lose Your Task from Sexual Harassment in 33 Simple Steps.”
Copaken wrote that all over a role interview on the Observer, Kurson commented about looking at her breasts.
Copaken additionally wrote that once she started writing articles for the newspaper, Kurson despatched an electronic mail that stated, “How come you by no means requested me out?”
The New York Occasions later in 2018 reported that Copaken was once contacted via any person who informed her about Kurson’s alleged harassment of staffers at Mount Sinai Health center.
Copaken informed The Occasions that FBI brokers interviewed her in June 2018 as a part of a background investigation associated with Kurson’s would-be appointment to the Nationwide Endowment for the Humanities board.
