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Trump family ally Ken Kurson arrested for alleged cyber-stalking

Ken Kurson is a personal friend of president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner

Graeme Massie
Los Angeles
Friday 23 October 2020 20:50 BST
Trump ally and close friend of Jared Kushner arrested for alleged cyber-stalking
Trump ally and close friend of Jared Kushner arrested for alleged cyber-stalking
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A Trump family ally was arrested for alleged cyber-stalking in connection with his divorce, according to reports.

Kurson, a close friend of the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, was taken into federal custody on Friday, reports the New York Times.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say that Kurson sent a string of threatening and stalking messages to people, including a friend he blamed for the breakdown of his marriage.

In a criminal complaint the FBI says that Kurson, 52, engaged in a similar pattern of harassment during his 2015 divorce.

Authorities say this included installing software on a computer to monitor the keyboard, and using a false identity to falsely making complaints to that individual’s employer.

“Ken Kurson is an honourable man, a loving dad and a gifted writer. The conduct alleged is hardly worthy of a federal criminal prosecution. Ken will get past it,” said Kurson’s lawyer, Marc L. Mukasey.

Kurson worked as the editor on the New York Observer, a newspaper owned by Mr Kushner.

He also is an associate of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and helped run his 2008 presidential campaign.

Kurson is set to appear before a judge on Friday afternoon.

 “Kurson bullied his victims by attacking their character online and attempted to intimidate them by showing up at their place of employment without a valid reason," said Acting United States Attorney Seth DuCharme in a statement.

Authorities say that Kurson has allegedly stalked three people since 2015.

“As part of this pattern, Kurson used multiple aliases to file false complaints about two of the victims with their employer, post false negative reviews about one victim’s professional conduct on crowd-sourced review websites and made unsolicited contact with two of the victims,” stated prosecutors. 

“Kurson traveled on multiple occasions to the workplace of two of the victims, taking photographs and inquiring about one victim’s work schedule.

“During the investigation, the FBI gathered evidence that Kurson simultaneously engaged in a similar pattern of harassment against two other individuals. 

"As a result of Kurson’s conduct, an employer of two of the victims hired a security guard.”

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