https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8873431/Ken-Kurson-charged-cyberstalking-connection-divorce.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490&traffic_source=Connatix

Close friend of Jared Kushner is charged with cyberstalking in connection with his divorce after FBI investigated him when Trump offered him an administration post

A Trump ally and close associate of Jared Kushner and Rudy Giuliani has been federally charged with harassment and cyberstalking following a routine FBI background check for a potential administration post.

Kenneth Kurson, 52, surrendered for arrest on Friday in Brooklyn, after prosecutors said he harassed three individuals online in 2015, when he was editor in chief of the New York Observer and going through a messy divorce.

In the twisted case, Kurson is accused of using the online aliases ‘Jayden Wagner’ and ‘Eddie Train’ to harass three individuals whom he appeared to blame for his divorce, according to a federal complaint unsealed on Friday.

Kurson’s attorney, Marc L. Mukasey, told DailyMail.com in a statement: ‘Ken Kurson is an honorable man, a loving dad, and a brilliant writer. This case is hardly the stuff of a federal criminal prosecution. He will get past it.’

Kenneth Kurson, 52, (right) surrendered for arrest on Friday in Brooklyn, after prosecutors said he harassed three individuals online in 2015. He is seen with Jared Kushner (center) in 2013

Prosecutors say that between November 2015 and December 2015, Kurson engaged in a pattern of stalking and harassment against the three victims. 

Kurson is a longtime friend of Kushner, who owned the Observer when Kurson topped the masthead, and longtime associate of Giuliani, with whom he co-authored a book. 

The complaint identifies one victim as an employee of a news media outlet, and the other two are believed to work at Manhattan’s Mt. Sinai Hospital, based on previously reported details.

According to the complaint, 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. 

One victim initially tried to smooth things over, insisting in an email that he had nothing to do with Kurson and his wife’s breakup, the complaint says.

‘Unfortunately, you have no one to blame but yourself,’ the message read. ‘It is a bitter pill to swallow, but true.’

Kurson (right) is a longtime friend of Kushner (left), who owned the Observer when Kurson topped the masthead 

In response, Kurson allegedly called the friend a ‘completely full of s**t phony who lies through [their] teeth and is also stupid.’

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

The allegations came to light during an FBI background check after the Trump administration offered Kurson a seat in 2018 on the board of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal body that distributes grants to museums, libraries and other cultural institutions. 

Kurson withdrew himself from consideration for the post after the allegations became public.

‘Kurson is alleged to have engaged in a disturbing pattern of retaliatory harassment that intimidated and alarmed several victims and their employer,’ said Acting United States Attorney DuCharme in a statement. 

‘This Office is committed to protecting victims from malicious cyberstalking activity and apprehending criminals who try to rely on Internet anonymity to facilitate their crimes.’ 

Joseph Meyer, Ken Kurson and Jared Kushner attend New York Observer Hosts the Launch of Core’s 61st and Madison Office at Rogue Tomate on April 3, 2013 in New York City

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney said that Kurson allegedly ‘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.’

‘The shadows of cyberspace may have provided him with some cover, but once his identity was revealed, he no longer had the benefit of a virtual retreat,’ Sweeney added. 

According to the complaint, one of the victims underwent therapy following the ordeal, which the victims variously described as ‘traumatic,’ ‘diabolical,’ ‘insane,’ and ‘super scary.’ 

The hospital where two of the employees worked hired a security guard as a result of the alleged harassment, the complaint says.  

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8863825/US-officials-targeted-American-soil-sonic-attacks-three-occasions.html

US officials ‘were targeted on American soil by sonic attacks on at least three occasions’  

October 21, 2020

US officials on American soil have been targeted by sonic attacks on at least three different occasions, according to a new report.

An unnamed American diplomat and his family are said to have heard the mysterious sounds and fallen ill while stationed in Philadelphia in June 2018. Both the diplomat and his wife are said to have reported pressure in their head before finding their children moving bizarrely and ‘in unison’ in their sleep.

In November 2019 a White House staffer, who has also not been identified, is said to have been targeted by a man while walking her dog in Arlington, Virginia. She told officials she also got an intense headache and a tingling on her face following the incident and that her dog began seizing up. 

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The third incident has not been reported in detail. These incidents followed dozens of other similar complaints in Cuba and China, where diplomats reported headaches and memory loss.  

Now one Russia-based CIA officer has spoken to GQ about his debilitating migraines amid growing suspicion the country is behind the mystery illness. 

Marc Polymeropoulos fell ill with severe migraines after experiencing vertigo in his hotel room in Moscow in December 2017. He told the magazine he was forced to retire because of the resulting pain, adding: ‘I had a lot more to offer. I was 50, but I had to retire because these goddamn headaches don’t go away.’   

The Russia-based CIA officer has spoken to GQ about his debilitating migraines amid growing suspicion the country is behind the mystery illness. Polymeropoulos is pictured 

Polymeropoulos says one of his colleagues on the trip became so ill he lost hearing in one of his ears. He added: ‘There’s a gentlemen’s agreement not to do these things. There’s never any physical stuff. 

‘They (Russia) know that our president is at war with our intelligence community, so kick them when they’re down, get back at them for everything they’ve done before.’

‘If there was an al-Qaeda threat against our officers, we would do everything possible to shut it down, but also to catch the people involved. 

‘I don’t see any of that happening here. What I would have expected would be this full court press that, you know, if we have senior people traveling and you think the Russians are going to hit him, have teams ready to try to capture.’

The American diplomat and his family said to have been targeted in Philadelphia also fell ill in China, according to reports. 

Scientists, as well as experts at the CIA and State Department, told The New York Times Monday the most likely culprit behind the unexplained symptoms is Russia.  

The CIA director and State Department say they have not established a cause. 

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that suggestion is ‘absolutely absurd and bizarre’. A spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington said it was likely a case of ‘mass hysteria’.

But officials from the CIA and Capitol Hill have told GQ US agents have also been targeted in Australia, Taiwan, Georgia and Poland. Cell phone data is said to have placed Russian agents close to CIA officers at the time of these alleged attacks.  

Pompeo discusses the investigation into ‘Havana syndrome’

The CIA has said: ‘If there was credible intelligence that showed an adversary purposefully harmed a CIA officer, you can bet Director Haspel would act swiftly and decisively.’ 

Diplomat Mark Lenzi, 45, was stationed in Guangzhou, China, in 2017, when he developed unexplained symptoms, including headaches, memory loss and trouble sleeping. 

His neighbor Catherine Werner also fell ill and fellow US official Robyn Garfield was evacuated from Shanghai with his family in June 2018.

Lenzi, who says the US ‘know exactly which country’ was responsible said: ‘This is a deliberate, high-level cover-up. They have hung us out to dry.’ 

His symptoms were reported after the U.S. State Department started investigating similar health concerns reported by diplomatic staff in Cuba in late 2016.  

The cluster of symptoms there has since been dubbed ‘Havana Syndrome’. Experts still disagree on whether there was such a sonic attack which caused the symptoms. 

But staff affected reported hearing loud sounds which varied from humming to squealing. It was suspected that the sounds were deliberate. 

In March of this year some scientists said they suspected pesticides as a possible culprit, although results remained inconclusive.    

The dozens of illnesses led the U.S. and Canada to sharply reduce the staffing at their embassies in Cuba. The phenomenon also led to increased tension between Cuba and the Trump administration, which accused Cuba of bearing at least some responsibility for the illnesses. 

Diplomat Mark Lenzi, 45, left, was stationed in Guangzhou in 2017, when he developed unexplained symptoms, including headaches, memory loss and trouble sleeping. His neighbor Catherine Werner, right, also fell ill

The State Department has officially drawn no link between the Chinese diplomats and 26 workers at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba who were withdrawn in 2017 after reporting symptoms, including those consistent with minor traumatic brain injury, or concussion.

They said in a statement: ‘The safety and security of U.S. personnel, their families and U.S. citizens is our top priority. The U.S. government has not yet determined a cause or an actor.’   

And spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said: ‘I will not try to confirm whether they are the victims of ‘an acoustic attack,’ paranoia, or Russophobia. That’s a question for the doctors.’

2017: US ordered staff to leave Cuba embassy over sonic ‘attacks’

But former national security official said of Russia: ‘These guys have been told they can take the gloves off and do whatever they want to hurt Americans. 

‘They’re trying to weaken us generally, and they’ve obviously taken the gloves off quite some time ago.’ 

And John Sipher, who was a clandestine CIA officer in Russia and was deputy director of Russia House during George W. Bush’s presidency, said: ‘In general, the Russians have no compunction about doing this kind of thing.’