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Kenneth Kurson

Kurson

“Wow, it's so weird - here we are talking about your story about your breast cancer, while I'm staring at your breasts.” - kenneth

Kenneth Kurson is a journalist/political pundit who in 2015 would launch a cyberstalking campaign that would land him in the crosshairs of the FBI. His case would receive mainstream media attention due to his close relationship with Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald Trump. His case offers an interesting insight into how someone with limited technical knowledge will undertake an aggressive cyberstalking and harassment campaign while trying their best to remain anonymous.

Kenneth Kurson was born October 23, 1968, growing up in the small town of Northbrook, Illinois, at age 18 he began attending the University of Chicago but left shortly describing it as “soul-deadening”. After leaving college he began playing bass in the punk rock band "Green" .Several years and 2 EP releases later Kenneth left the band and moved to New York to begin working in journalism (possibly aided or inspired by his brother Robert who had built a successful career as an author)

After a few stints working at different publications including The Rolling Stone, he began writing his own publication on financial issues “The Kenny Quarterly” which later became “Green” the name of his former band. Kurson carved a niche for himself as the “Gen X financial advisor” akin to your modern-day r/wallstreebets options gurus. His notoriety got him a New York Times profile in 2000 titled “PRIVATE SECTOR: Finance, by an Ex-Punk Rocker” as his background supposedly made him a more authentic, non-establishment figure to the radical gen X.

2002 is when his political involvement began, he became the Deputy Director of Communications for Rudy Giuliani's consulting company. He would also co-write a book with Giuliani titled “Leadership".Riding off of Giuliani's celebrity status following 9/11 Giuliani would make a presedential run in 2008 where Kurson would work as a speechwriter and manager, though the campaign would fall down the stretch to John McCain in the primaries. In 2013 Kurson became the editor of The New York Observer (now The Observer), a somewhat fringe publication owned by Jared Kushner.

When Donald Trump became President in 2016, Kurson was tapped for an honorary position within the White House, and as such, the FBI did a background check on him and he was subsequentially removed from consideration due to what they found he did in 3 months in 2015.

September

In 2015 Kurson's marriage seems to have fallen apart, from the FBI report we can assume that his wife Becky had begun divorce proceedings and this set him off on his warpath. His first action(possibly before his wife had started the divorce process) would be to install spyware called “Webwatcher” which keylogged and monitored internet access and hid itself from the owner of the device. After installing WebWatcher onto her computer, he would email their customer support several times and ask how he could view her text messages and emails, as well as ensure that it was undetectable, writing “Like if someone at the Apple store is LOOKING for it, will they be able to find it?". His wife was working at a summer camp at the time where she became friendly with a coworker, after summer ended they stayed in contact.

Their relationship made Kurson so jealous that he would write an email to the director of the camp with screenshots of his wife's private conversation, we can assume he tried to insinuate some sort of unethical relationship between his wife and her coworker and used this to try and get his desired outcome. While this isn't what caused the FBI to investigate him, this behavior and its consequences would play a part in what he would go on to do.

October

The investigation revolves around three people that were the targets of his cyberstalking campaign, I will go over it here rather than piece by piece so it is easier to follow. Individual One is personal friends with Kurson along with Kurson's Ex-Wife, she works/worked at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Individual Two is a coworker of Individual One at the hospital and a supervisor of hers, Kurson has never met Individual Two. Individual Three is married to individual Two and works/worked at a news media publication, Kurson has never met Individual Three.

It started on October 30th, when Kurson emailed Individual One blaming her for the impending divorce because of One's “Freedom agenda” and further claimed that she had been pushing to split up his family. One replied, “Unfortunately, you have no one to blame but yourself. It is a bitter pill to swallow, but true". Kurson replied, “Please, don't email me again”(lol).

November



Around this time a Gmail account would be created belonging to a Jayden Wagner. On November 3rd Jayden Wagner would email Individual Three's employer stating that he “needed to reach [Individual Three] regarding a personal matter. I assure you, [Individual Three] will want to hear what I have to say - very newsworthy and [Individual Three] knows me from [Individual Three's former employer]. Can you ask [Individual Three ] to please email me at jaydenlwagner@gmail.com. Thank you, Jayden Wagner". Since Kurson never had met Individual Three or worked with them it's safe to assume he had already done a good amount of research and planning.

Also on the 3rd, a Yelp account was registered to Jayden Wagner, records held by Yelp show that the IP address used to register the account belonged to the New York Observer. The Jayden Wagner Gmail account also received the newsletter from The New York Observer including newsletters written by him.

On November 5th, 2015 Individual One emailed Kurson, violating his prior request, reiterating that they had not induced Kursons impending divorce, in his response, Kurson called her “a completely full of shit phony who lies through her teeth and is also stupid ... You are the biggest liar I have ever met ... Everything you touch turns to shit ... Please don't ever email me again. That's the second time I'm asking. There's not going to be a third time. Fuck you. Forever. Got it?"

Later that day, Kurson began using his second account/alias Eddie Train and eddietrain@protonmail.com. Using the Eddie Train account he contacted Individual Three, stating that he worked with Individual Three's husband, Individual Number Two. Kurson also stated he previously went to high school with Individual Two, really showing his elite ability to find information about his targets. Kurson then uses his signature move, he claims that Individual One and Individual Two were in an illicit sexual relationship, both adultery and supervisor-subordinate relations (very spicy). Individual Three never responded to this email.

Because Proton Mail does not operate in the United States they did not report where the account was registered to the FBI, but there is ample evidence showing that he is the one who created it. Kurson's bank account records show that on November 5th, Kurson paid $17 to Proton Mail, the same day the first email was sent. According to Google, the recovery email address for the Jayden Wagner Gmail account was the Eddie Train proton account, reflecting that they were owned by the same person.

On or about November 6th, Individual One advised Individual Two and other employees at the hospital that Kurson had been “sending threatening emails and saying he'll ruin me” also saying that he had been “very destructive to other's careers and reputations and I value both greatly. I'm sorry to have to send this email. This is very embarrassing”

On November 8th using the Eddie Train account, emailed Individual Three asking if they had received the email sent on the 5th. Kurson went on to say that if Individual Three did not confirm they had received it he would send the “sensitive mail” to email addresses associated with Individual Three's former employer, Individual Three did not respond to this email either.

Later that day, Individual Two provided emails to a senior employee at the hospital along with the emails sent to Individual Three. The fact that he had already told Individual One that he was going to do something like this made it obvious who was behind it. Individual Three would also forward these emails to their employer.

On the 9th, using the Eddie Train account he contacted Individual Three reiterating that if he did not get a response he would contact a supervisor at the hospital. He repeated that he was a coworker of One and Two at the hospital, and it is unclear why someone working with One and Two would reach out to Three before contacting their own supervisor. He also claimed to have contacted multiple individuals at Individual Three's former employer in his efforts to reach Individual Three. Kurson falsely claimed that his “working situation [at the hospital] had been made impossible by the ongoing relationship” between One and Two.

Individual Three would finally respond, saying that they had forwarded the email to their employer and stated “these emails are harassing and I will not respond further, Cease and desist any further emails to me or my family immediately”. Later that day Kurson responded using the Eddie Train account, repeating the same lies he had done before, high school with Two, sexual relationship between one and two, but he now also claimed that One had “all but stalked” Two (slight projection) and had “seen them embracing at work”. He went on to say that “The situation is out of hand ... Honestly it's [Individual One's] fault” and signed the email “A concerned friend”.

On the 10th Kurson using the Jayden Wagner yelp account posted a negative review of medical services provided by Individual One. Citing that there had been inexcusable rude treatment from One and that One was “sick as a dog" with pneumonia during the visit and incredibly cranky. This review was posted from an IP address that belonged to The New York Observer. Individual One would later report to a senior employee that the poster was “Definitely” Kurson. Two weeks before the yelp review Kurson asked Individual One if they would attend his birthday party, Individual One lied and said they had pneumonia to get out of it, Individual One said Kurson was the only person she lied to about having pneumonia. Individual One also references Individual Four (surprise character), someone whom Kurson had used aliases and similar allegations to the employer of Individual Four, resulting in them getting fired. There is some evidence to suggest this is either Kursons ex-wife or the coworker they had talked to. The reasons I believe it could be Kurson's ex-wife is because Individual One was a friend of both of theirs, who would have been aware of the allegations despite that they were not news-making stories. We also know that Kurson used these same tactics with his Ex-Wife when she worked at the summer camp.

Kurson never seemed to really grasp that this plan was failing on all fronts, using the Eddie Train account he emailed a senior employee at the hospital asking “How will I know if anything is being done about [the alleged sexual relationship between One and Two]. And that ”more information had come to light" regarding his allegations. He really seems to think the only thing stopping them is that they have not gotten the desired outcome is one piece of critical information. After this email, the senior employee offered to speak with Kurson on the phone but he replied saying he was afraid Individual Two would “recognize my voice! You promised me anonymity! I'm already afraid of retaliation because [Individual Three] knows I know them from Chicago.

There are pages and pages of Kurson continuing this string of behavior, sending threatening emails, being told to fuck off, and then doubling down and trying to add more information trying to make his claim seem legitimate. I will skip ahead some time to his next mistakes but this does not mean Kurson was resting in any way, he was spamming everyone he could trying to get people he had never met fired and ruin their marriages.

On November 16th, Kurson traveled to Mount Sinai Hospital(Workplace of Individual One and Two if you haven't been paying attention), entered the lobby and began photographing the lobby, and left. He would then send an email to himself, copying and pasting the review he had posted on the 10th. (no idea)

November 17th: Using the Jayden Wagner Yelp account, he posted another negative review of Individual One that was nearly identical to the one he posted on the 10th. In this review, however, he attached a photo of the lobby of the hospital. Kurson would also vote the review as “useful, funny, or cool” using his personal Ken Kurson Yelp account. The image is dated to the 16th and in the image, a clock is shown displaying (2:54 PM). Shockingly, the hospital had security cameras that when checked showed Kurson taking the pictures.

November 23rd would be a big day for Ken Kurson. First, he would post a Jayden Wagner Yelp review that was identical in substance to the last two, and he would revisit Mount Sinai Hospital and ask if Individual One was there, when told they were not available he would leave. No reason has ever been given for why he decided to do this and its very hard to guess what he hoped to gain at this point. Because of this visit, the hospital hired security personnel to guard the lobby and personally escort Individual One. Individual One would inform senior employees at the hospital that “after significant online abuses including accusations emailed to others about [Individual Four] that they had gotten a restraining order against Kurson and would be leaving the state”. Individual One would later caution that because of this “there may be an increase in activity from him focused towards me”. This is another indicator that Four is most likely his wife, One has knowledge of her situation intimately and Kurson also blamed One for the divorce so Four getting a restraining order that would make him target One fits perfectly. After being served with the restraining order from Individual Four, Kurson would delete all accounts associated with Jayden Wagner (RIP)

Individual One's employer would offer them relocation assistance due to the harassment she was receiving from Kurson, she replied that “My email was hacked 2 days ago, with my lease agreement being the first thing in there, so he probably knows that address anyway. I can't hide forever ... I honestly have no idea what to do about this. I've never experienced or heard of anything so insane”. I am not sure how much to take from this, Kurson was by no means a hacker and he was never charged with any hacking crimes. Hacking an email account is not easy and he certainly does not have the skills, and it's hard to see how he could've acquired the credentials otherwise.

On December 2nd, Kursons final effort, Individual Two would receive a letter from Jayden Wagner, repeating the Yelp review he had left about Individual One, because Individual Two was her superior it's safe to assume this was directly trying to get her fired. This is where things get very silly, later in this letter he states that during Jayden Wagner's alleged visit; Individual One told him about how she was falling in love with Individual Two and how there was a “love triangle” forming between Individual One, Two, and Three. Just to be clear this letter was sent to Individual Two who was aware they were not having sex with Individual One but Kurson still claimed it in the letter. He also went on to complain about Individual One's rude demeanor for quite a long time. Individual Two would forward the letter to senior employees at the hospital. This is the last event detailed in the FBI's report.

Kurson would be convicted then pardoned for cyberstalking by then President Donald Trump, along with Lil Wayne and Steve Bannon on his last night in office. He is certainly guilty of the crimes he was convicted of and this is not some subjective case of the dreaded cancel culture. This is someone violating the law and getting away with it because of political favors. Two years later Kurson would be charged again, this time for the cyberstalking of Kursons ex-wife. Kurson would plead guilty to two charges of misdemeanor cyberstalking and eavesdropping. He will serve 100 hours of community service for his actions. This is a slap on the wrist on its own, but Kurson is a repeat offender and this sentence is a joke. Kurson is a piece of shit, he is a vindictive child. He blames a person for his own marriage collapsing due to his own actions, so he tries to go beyond that and ruin their marriage and their career, and the careers of people associated with them. Its a truly awful combination where someone is both paranoid,vindictive and believes they are infallible.He should probably be in prison or an institution, but he's not.

Kursons's Mistakes

Things he did right