New Jersey man Kenneth Kurson, 52, was charged in the Eastern District of New York on Friday for cyberstalking three people in 2015. According to the FBI, Kurson blamed one of the victims, Individual No. 1, “among others, for the dissolution of [the defendant’s] marriage.”
Kurson had been friends for more than 20 years with Individual No. 1 at the time he “threatened to ruin” that person’s reputation, and “engaged in a pattern of stalking and harassment,” the complaint said. “As part of these efforts, KURSON also harassed Individual No. 2, who was a co-worker and supervisor of Individual No. 1, and Individual No. 3, the spouse of Individual No. 2. On information and belief, KURSON has never met Individual No. 2 or No. 3.”
Kurson, who allegedly used aliases Jayden Wagner and Eddie Train in the harassment campaign, has been referred to in reports about him as a “media savant.” Indeed, he used to be the editor in chief of the New York Observer, a publication that was owned by presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner. Kurson and Kushner are known to be longtime friends. Kurson was also identified by the New York Times as an associate of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney. In fact, Kurson was a speechwriter for Giuliani and co-authored Giuliani’s book, Leadership. He was also briefly a speechwriter for Trump.
Kurson’s attorney in this matter is Marc Mukasey—a Trump lawyer, a former law partner of Giuliani’s, and the son of former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
Mukasey told the Times that the charges wouldn’t stick.
“Ken Kurson is an honorable man, a loving dad and a gifted writer. The conduct alleged is hardly worthy of a federal criminal prosecution. Ken will get past it,” Mukasey’s statement said.
But it appears these are the very same allegations that were once flagged by the FBI during a background check on Kurson. In 2018, New York magazine reported that this background check cost Kurson a board position at the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency:
The target of the alleged harassment was a doctor at New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital who was friends with Kurson and his wife. While the couple was splitting up in 2015, the doctor alleges that Kurson began posting negative reviews of her on Yelp and RateMDs.com. And then, according to the doctor, he allegedly went went further in his attempts to make professional trouble for her.
[…]
The hospital eventually hired an investigator to look into the harassment and assigned extra security to the hospital waiting room. Kurson told the Times that the doctor is “a very good friend” and he considers “this chapter long closed.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York has charged Kurson for stalking and harassment.
Acting United States Attorney Seth DuCharme said in a statement that Kurson was accused of a “disturbing pattern of retaliatory harassment that intimidated and alarmed several victims and their employer.”
“This Office is committed to protecting victims from malicious cyberstalking activity and apprehending criminals who try to rely on Internet anonymity to facilitate their crimes,” DuCharme said.
[Image via CNN screengrab]
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
Follow Law&Crime:
