Former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who served alongside then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the time of the Sept. 11 terror assaults and later spent years in jail on federal tax fraud fees, died on the age of 69.
The New York Police Division confirmed his dying Thursday on social media.
FBI Director Kash Patel stated in a publish on X that Kerik died “after a private battle with illness.” No additional data concerning the circumstances of Kerik’s dying have been instantly out there.
“We mourn the loss of Bernard B. Kerik, a warrior, a patriot, and one of the most courageous public servants this country has ever known…With over forty years of service in law enforcement and national security, he dedicated his life to protecting the American people,” Patel stated within the publish. “Bernie led with strength and resolve in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, guiding the NYPD through one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history. He was decorated more than 100 times for bravery, valor, and service, having rescued victims from burning buildings, survived assassination attempts, and brought some of the world’s most dangerous criminals to justice.”
New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams stated in an announcement that “It was just this afternoon that I stopped by the hospital to see Bernie Kerik, my friend of nearly 30 years, before his passing. He was with his loved ones who are in my prayers tonight. He was a great New Yorker and American.”
Giuliani mirrored on his lengthy historical past together with his former police commissioner on his present Thursday.
“We’ve been together since the beginning. He’s like my brother,” Giuliani stated by means of tears. “I was a better man for having known Bernie. I certainly was a braver and stronger man.”
Kerik, an Military veteran, labored as a corrections officer in New Jersey within the Eighties earlier than he joined the New York Police Division. He first began working with Giuliani in 1993 as part of the safety element for Giuliani throughout his marketing campaign for mayor, a race he received.
Kerik was named town’s Division of Correction commissioner in 1997 and was later appointed by Giuliani as NYPD commissioner in 2000.
Giuliani and Kerik have been hailed as heroes after the Sept. 11 terror assault on the World Commerce Middle. Kerik was later nominated in 2004 to be Homeland Safety secretary, however his misdeeds have been uncovered within the scrutiny that adopted, leaving his fame in tatters. He abruptly withdrew his nomination to run the division, catching the Bush administration off guard.
His fall from the head of regulation enforcement was so steep, even a NYC jail named after him was renamed.
In 2010, he pleaded responsible to federal tax fraud and false assertion fees, partially stemming from over $250,000 in house renovations he acquired from a building agency that authorities say counted on Kerik to persuade New York officers it had no organized crime hyperlinks. The false assertion fees have been related to lies he informed to White Home officers throughout his failed Homeland Safety secretary nomination.
In a presentence submitting, prosecutors chided Kerik, saying “he more than once unlawfully used public office for private profit, and then, after leaving government, became a wealthy man by shamelessly exploiting the most horrific civilian tragedy in this nation’s history.”
After he was launched from jail in 2013, Kerik ceaselessly advocated for nationwide felony justice and jail reform, together with earlier than Congress and on the White Home.
Kerik was pardoned by President Donald Trump in Feb. 2020, throughout his first time period in workplace.
“I started crying,” the Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, resident stated on the time.
Kerik once more labored for Giuliani almost 20 years after the Sept. 11 assaults, when he labored for the previous mayor surrounding the hassle to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
