New York Prosecutors Charge Kushner Friend Who Was Pardoned By Trump

A friend of Jared Kushner's has been charged with spying on his wife in New York this week, in spite of the fact that he secured a presidential pardon from Donald Trump. New York passed a law, which was upheld by the US Supreme Court, allowing for this type of "double jeopardy" prosecution in order to circumvent presidential pardons. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains the charges against Kushner's buddy and what happens from here.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

One of Jared Kushner's friends Ken Kurson was pardoned by Donald Trump

Earlier this year. I believe it was. And Mr. Kurson was facing charges of cyber-stalking. You know, he had allegedly installed malware on his wife's computer to get her passwords, you know, to, to look at everything she was doing. He was harassing people and threatening them during their divorce proceedings facing some real serious federal charges here. So Donald Trump comes along. I'm sure. You know, I have little doubt at the request of Jared Kushner. Hey, maybe throw my friend apart in here. And he got pardoned. So all was well, right? Well, not exactly. You see side Vance at the Manhattan district. Attorney's office is not happy about all these people that Donald Trump is pardoning. So Mr. Vance has decided that even though the federal charges against, uh, Mr. Carter person have been pardoned, he's still going to charge him anyway in the state of New York. And that is exactly what happened this week. Kirsten is now facing two felony charges in the state of New York. Uh, basically the exact same charges that he was pardoned for

By Donald Trump.

And I know what you're thinking. Wait a minute. W jeopardy, cause we have discussed this in the past. There have been some prosecutors that have tried to go after some of the people, Donald Trump, pardon? Trying to charge them at the state level. And the court said, Nope, you can't do that. It's double jeopardy. We'll see. New York found a way around that couple years ago, they didn't want to run into the same situation. So the New York state legislature actually passed a law allowing for the prosecution of any individual at the state level who had been pardoned

At the federal level. And that law

Was upheld by the United States Supreme court. And the argument is this, obviously the fifth amendment says you can't be charged for the same crime in the same way twice. Yes, but here's the thing. The Supreme court also decided

That if you commit a crime and the crime

Is both a crime on the federal and state level, those are two separate

Crimes. And because

They are two separate crimes, even if you get pardoned for one, you can still be prosecuted for the other. Even if it's identical, federal and state are different venues charging you with a different crime. So yes, Mr. Curson can in fact be prosecuted in the state of New York. Uh, he is going to be prosecuted in the state of New York and I'll tell you what else could come back and bite him in the, but here is the fact that he accepted that presidential, pardon, which as the Supreme court has ruled in the past as well, accepting a pardon is essentially in the eyes of the law and admission

Of guilt.

So good luck to these New York prosecutors, even though you really don't need luck at this point because he accepted the pardon. Supreme court says that's an admission of guilt. So this prosecution at this point really should be a slam dunk, sorry, Jared Cushner. But it looks like your friend is going to be going away for a while.