Ken Kurson

Kenneth Kurson (born 1968) is an American political consultant, writer, journalist, and former musician, who was editor-in-chief of The New York Observer between 2013 and 2017. In 2020 he was charged by federal prosecutors with cyberstalking and harassment, for which he was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2021. In February 2022, Kurson pleaded guilty to state misdemeanor criminal charges of attempted eavesdropping and computer trespass related to his divorce.

Education and family Kurson was the son of a traveling salesman of motorcycle parts, and once recounted that "some years were good; others we had to sell our piano and all our furniture." Though he began studies at the University of Chicago, he wound up leaving college, finding the experience to be "soul-deadening." After leaving Green in 1990, Kurson founded The Lilacs with David Levinsky. A follow-up EP, The Lilacs Hate You, was the band's next release. A full-length CD, The Lilacs Rise Above the Filth, was produced by Brad Wood and released in 1992.

In 1993, he headed to New York to break into journalism, and landed internships and jobs at Rolling Stone, Harper's and Worth. In 1995, he began an irreverent eight-page publication on financial topics, The Kenny Quarterly, while working as an editor at United Media. It was to friends desiring financial advice. Later that year, he and a friend, John Packel, turned The Kenny Quarterly into Green. Kurson was a contributing editor at Esquire from 1997 to 2001, covering investing. Kurson first became interested in finance when he played bass for Green. He took charge of the band's books and contracts. He was co-author of a book with journalist David Faber published by Little, Brown in 2002.

Political consulting From 2002 through the end of 2006, Kurson was Deputy Director of Communications for Giuliani Partners, the consulting company founded by Rudy Giuliani, with whom he had co-authored the book, Leadership. Kurson served as chief operating officer (COO) during Rudy Giuliani's unsuccessful 2008 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

Kurson hired by the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee and put in charge of the Mid-Atlantic Region – New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. In May 2007, he was promoted to chief operating officer, reporting to Michael DuHaime, and served in this role until Giuliani withdrew from the race on January 30, 2008.

After the campaign, Kurson worked at Jamestown Associates, a Republican political consulting firm based in New Jersey.

Kurson ran in the 2003 New Jersey General Assembly election for the 34th Legislative District as a Republican. He received 17.6% of the vote and ran a distant third behind Democratic incumbent Peter C. Eagler (with 33.2%) and his running mate Sheila Oliver (31.0%).

In 2010 he was the co-author of the personal memoir of biotechnology executive John Crowley entitled Chasing Miracles: The Crowley Family Journey of Strength, Hope and Joy.

New York Observer In January 2013, Kurson was named the editor of The New York Observer by the newspaper's publisher, Jared Kushner. His tenure as editor was marked by questions about close relationship with Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and to the Trump campaign, especially after Kurson publicly acknowledged that he had ghost written portions of a Trump speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. As a result of the criticism, Kurson said that he would no longer advise the Trump campaign.

As editor, Kurson oversaw the publication's decision in 2016 to end its print edition and drop "New York" from its title, in a break with its past under former editor Peter W. Kaplan.

Later career

In May 2017, Kurson stepped down as editor of the Observer to work as a senior managing director at Teneo Strategies, a firm run by allies of Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton.

He was a board member of the payments company Ripple Labs from February 2017 until October 2020, when federal prosecutors charged him in federal court with interstate cyberstalking and related offenses. Sea of Reeds Media publishes Modern Consensus, California Globe, New Jersey Globe, Rock and Roll Globe, Wine and Whiskey Globe, Book and Film Globe, and Fine Art Globe.

Criminal indictments Federal harassment indictment In March 2018, journalist Deborah Copaken wrote an article in The Atlantic in which she claimed that Kurson withdrew a job offer that had been made to her to write for the New York Observer after not responding favorably to sexual advances from him. It later became known that he was considered for an appointment to the board of the National Endowment for the Humanities. When the list of appointees to the endowment was released in July 2018, Kurson was not on the list. He said at the time that he had withdrawn from consideration the previous month due to too much paperwork in the vetting process. According to the federal prosecutors, Kurson used aliases to post a flood of negative Yelp reviews about the physician, sent her threatening emails, harassed her with anonymous calls, and delivered messages to other Mount Sinai employees claiming the physician was having an affair with her boss. Mount Sinai Hospital was so concerned about the harassment at the time that it hired someone to protect the doctor for a few days.

Elizabeth Spiers, Kurson's predecessor at the Observer, noted in The Daily Beast that the White House statement did not mention the other alleged victims, and that the pardon stood out from the other persons pardoned "because of the ongoing threat that some of the people he allegedly stalked and harassed fear that he may pose to them now." Copaken said she was "terrified" by the pardon.

New York charges In August 2021, Kurson was charged in a New York state court with hacking into his wife's computer between September 2015 and March 2016 as their marriage fell apart and they divorced. He was accused of using the spyware program WebWatcher to obtain access to her Facebook and Gmail accounts.

In announcing the charges, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the district attorney from Manhattan, said, "We will not accept presidential pardons as get-out-of-jail-free cards for the well-connected in New York."

In February 2022, Kurson struck a plea deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to two misdemeanors with the opportunity to have the charges further reduced. Under the terms of the deal, he was required to complete 100 hours of community service, and if not arrested for another crime, in one year he will withdraw those pleas, and plead to the lesser offense of second degree harassment.

Personal life Kurson lives in Maplewood, New Jersey,