Bernard Kerik, who served as New York City’s police commissioner during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and later pleaded guilty to tax fraud before being pardoned, has died. He was 69.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Kash Patel said that Kerik’s death Thursday came after an unspecified “private battle with illness”.
During his podcast on Thursday, Rudy Giuliani, the Republican former mayor of the city who hired Kerik as a bodyguard for his 1993 mayoral campaign and then selected him to head the NYPD, reflected on their lengthy relationship.
Since the beginning, we have been together. Giuliani, the problematic former attorney for Donald Trump, sobbed as he remarked, “He’s like my brother.” “Knowing Bernie made me a better man. I was undoubtedly a stronger and braver man.
Bernard Kerik Passes Away At 69
Former NYPD officer and Democrat Eric Adams, the current mayor of New York City, claimed to have seen Kerik, his “friend of nearly 30 years,” at a hospital earlier in the day.
Kerik, an army veteran, was hailed as a hero after the 9/11 attack and eventually nominated to head the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), before a dramatic fall from grace that ended with him behind bars.
He served nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty in 2009 to tax fraud, making false statements and other charges. The charges stemmed partially from apartment renovations he received from a construction firm that authorities say wanted Kerik to convince New York officials it had no links to organized crime.
The judge stated during Kerik’s sentencing that he was “the chief law enforcement officer for the biggest and grandest city this nation has” when he committed some of the crimes.
During a clemency campaign in 2020, Trump pardoned Kerik. Following Trump’s initial appearance in federal court in Florida in a matter involving his handling of sensitive documents, Kerik was among the visitors who greeted him.
Growing up in Paterson, New Jersey, Kerik left the problematic Eastside high school that was later featured in the 1989 movie Lean on Me.
He joined the army, where he became a military policeman stationed in South Korea. He joined the NYPD in the late 1980s and was appointed in the 1990s to run New York’s long-troubled jail system, including the city’s notorious Riker’s Island complex.
Kerik was appointed by Giuliani to serve as police commissioner in 2000
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