{"id":42900,"date":"2025-05-30T03:17:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T08:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42900"},"modified":"2025-05-30T03:17:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T08:17:48","slug":"bernard-kerik-new-york-police-commissioner-on-9-11-dies-at-69","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42900","title":{"rendered":"Bernard Kerik, New York police commissioner on 9\/11, dies at 69"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bernard Kerik, who was New York City\u2019s police commissioner on 9\/11 and later pleaded guilty to tax fraud before being pardoned, has died. He was 69.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New York Police Department confirmed his death Thursday on social media. FBI Director Kash Patel said his death came \u201cafter a private battle with illness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani reflected on his long history with his former police commissioner on his show Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been together since the beginning. He\u2019s like my brother,\u201d Giuliani said through tears. \u201cI was a better man for having known Bernie. I certainly was a braver and stronger man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerik, an Army veteran, was hailed as a hero after the 9\/11 attack and eventually nominated to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, before a dramatic fall from grace that ended with him behind bars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud and false statement charges in 2010. The charges stemmed partially from over $250,000 in apartment renovations he received from a construction firm that authorities say counted on Kerik to convince New York officials it had no organized crime links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Kerik\u2019s sentencing, the judge noted that he committed some of the crimes while serving as \u201cthe chief law enforcement officer for the biggest and grandest city this nation has.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He served three years in prison before his release in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump pardoned Kerik<\/a> during a 2020 clemency blitz. Kerik was among the guests feting Trump after his first appearance in federal court in Florida in a case related to his handling of classified documents, attending the former president\u2019s remarks at his Bedminster, New Jersey, club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerik was appointed by Giuliani to serve as police commissioner in 2000 and was in the position during the Sept. 11, 2001, attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Kerik\u2019s 2015 book, \u201cFrom Jailer to Jailed,\u201d he described becoming \u201cAmerica\u2019s Top Cop\u201d after the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut I\u2019d give anything for that day not to have happened. I wish it hadn\u2019t. But it did,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAnd I happened to be there at the time. I was there, and I did the best I could do under the circumstances. It\u2019s all any of us did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was tapped by President George W. Bush to help organize Iraq\u2019s police force in 2003, then nominated to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security the following year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Kerik caught the administration off guard when he abruptly withdrew his nomination, saying he had uncovered information that led him to question the immigration status of a person he employed as a housekeeper and nanny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2005, Kerik founded the Kerik Group, a crisis and risk management consulting firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He later worked for the former mayor of New York City surrounding the efforts to overturn Trump\u2019s 2020 loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patel described Kerik in a post on social media as \u201ca warrior, a patriot, and one of the most courageous public servants this country has ever known.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe 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\u2019s most dangerous criminals to justice,\u201d he said. \u201cHis legacy is not just in the medals or the titles, but in the lives he saved, the city he helped rebuild, and the country he served with honor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerik grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, where he dropped out of the the trouble-filled Eastside High School later depicted in the 1989 film \u201cLean on Me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He joined the Army, where he became a military policeman stationed in South Korea. He went on to work private security in Saudi Arabia before returning stateside to supervise a jail in New Jersey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He joined the NYPD in the late 1980s. He was tapped in the 1990s to run New York\u2019s long-troubled jail system, including the city\u2019s notorious Riker\u2019s Island complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bernard Kerik, who was New York City\u2019s police commissioner on 9\/11 and later pleaded guilty to tax fraud before being pardoned, has died. He was 69. The New York Police Department confirmed his death Thursday on social media. FBI Director Kash Patel said his death came \u201cafter a private battle with illness.\u201d Former New York […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":42901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5780],"tags":[33467,3111,2831,33466],"class_list":["post-42900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-livehood","tag-69-years-old","tag-died","tag-new-york","tag-police-commissioner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42902,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42900\/revisions\/42902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}