Ken Kurson earned a presidential pardon back in January, Save Jerseyans, but Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance doesn’t want that to be the end of the story for this veteran New Jersey GOP operative and media entrepreneur with deep Trump World ties (he’s a friend of Jared Kushner as almost every article on this affair reminds you).
On Wednesday, Vance’s notoriously political office charged Kurson with eavesdropping and criminal trespass. The charges relate to Kurson’s years-old messy divorce and, specifically, allegations that he illegally intercepted his then-wife’s online communications back in late 2015 and early 2016 using spy software. Because presidential pardons only address federal crimes and not civil, state or local charges, New York authorities aren’t necessarily barred from pursuing independent cases.
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But should they in this instance?
“We will not accept presidential pardons as get-out-of-jail-free cards for the well-connected in New York,” Vance explained in a statement released by his office. “As alleged in the complaint, Mr. Kurson launched a campaign of cybercrime, manipulation, and abuse from his perch at the New York Observer, and now the people of New York will hold him accountable. We encourage all survivors and witnesses of this type of cybercrime and intimate partner abuse to report these crimes to our Office.”
No one should be above the law, least of all friends of presidents and their families.
I can’t speak for the people of New York. Victims’ opinions typically carry at least some weight in criminal prosecutions and especially prosecutions surrounding domestic matters. In this new state criminal matter initiated by Vance (related to the original federal cyberstalking charges concerning other tertiary characters in the Kurson divorce saga), Kurson’s alleged victim (his ex-wife) reportedly didn’t want to make a felony affair out of her former husband’s behavior.
In a letter cited by the Trump Administration at the time of Kurson’s pardon, his former spouse related how she “repeatedly asked for the FBI to drop it […] I hired a lawyer to protect me from being forced into yet another round of questioning. My disgust with this arrest and the subsequent articles is bottomless.”
“This investigation only began because Mr. Kurson was nominated to a role within the Trump Administration,” she added. And that last part isn’t untrue. The Kurson harassment/stalking story only came to light in 2018 after President Trump nominated him to the National Endowment for the Humanities board.
We’ve been down this road with Vance before. The mortgage fraud case brought by Vance against Paul Manafort – brought after Trump pardoned him – was thrown out by New York’s high court on double jeopardy grounds. We’ll see how Vance’s quest to destroy the Trump Organization pans out. My hopes for an inspiring perfomance by the state aren’t high.
To be clear, this is NOT a defense of harassment or whatever else Ken Kurson did (or didn’t) do several years ago during what I expect was probably one of the worst periods of his life. I’m not even saying there shouldn’t have been consequences! That’s not the point at this juncture.
At a time when New York City is facing a crime wave unseen in decades, is a 5-to-6 year old non-violent incident arising from a nasty divorce the best use of limited district attorney resources? Especially if the victim doesn’t want to proceed?
Is Vance’s full-force prosecution of Kurson aimed at serving justice?
Or serving up political vengeance?
You be the judge, folks.
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