Ken Kurson, the former New York Observer editor-in-chief accused of cyberstalking his ex-wife, pleaded guilty to reduced charges Wednesday as part of a deal with prosecutors.
Kurson, 53, was accused of installing spyware on his then-wife’s computer and monitoring her online activity, even obtaining passwords to her Gmail and Facebook accounts, as the two were undergoing a bitter divorce in 2015.
He was charged in August with eavesdropping and computer trespass, each a felony that carries a sentence of up to four years in prison.
The state charges, brought by former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., spun out of a federal case against Kurson, also tied to his divorce.
The feds accused Kurson in 2020 of cyberstalking three people and harassing two others. But former President Donald Trump pardoned Kurson in the final hours of his presidency. The administration said that Kurson’s ex-wife had written a letter to federal prosecutors imploring them to drop the charges.
Kurson is a former associate and friend of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who previously owned Observer Media Group.
Now remarried, Kurson was accompanied by his wife in Manhattan Criminal Court as he copped to attempted computer trespassing and attempted eavesdropping, both misdemeanors.
If Kurson completes 100 hours of community service and is not arrested in connection with another crime for a year, he’ll have the opportunity to withdraw those pleas and instead cop to harassment, a violation.
Neither he nor his attorney Marc Mukasey commented after the hearing.
