Former New York Observer editor Ken Courson admits to harassing ex-wife

Ken Courson, the former editor-in-chief of the New York Observer accused of cyberstalking his ex-wife, was allowed to face lesser charges Thursday after he honored the terms of his plea deal with Manhattan prosecutors.

Courson, 54, has completed 100 hours of community service and has not been rearrested in the last year, so he was able to withdraw his previous misdemeanor statement and instead file for second-degree prosecution, which is a violation.

He was arrested in August 2020 on charges of accessing his then-wife’s messages in 2015 and 2016 while serving as editor-in-chief of the Observer Media Group.

Courson — an associate of former President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — even received passwords to her Gmail and Facebook accounts as they were going through a nasty divorce, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors initially charged him with eavesdropping and computer intrusion, both felony offenses that each carry a penalty of up to four years in prison.

In New York, when prosecutors accuse certain minor crimes of being committed and not committed, they become misdemeanors.

In 2018, Mr. Courson was nominated for a seat on the board of the National Endowment for the Humanities. At the time, he described the potential appointment as an “honorary position”.

Following a routine background check for the position, Courson was found to have allegedly stalked several people and, in 2020, cyberstalked and federal prosecutors stalked.

But Trump pardoned Courson in the final hours of his presidency. The administration said Courson’s ex-wife wrote a letter to federal prosecutors asking them to drop the charges.

On Thursday, neither Courson nor his attorney responded to requests for comment.