2 days ago
Former NYPD Commissione Bernie Kerik dead at 69
Ex-NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik, whose career included White House stints under President Trump and former President George W. Bush, died Thursday after being hospitalized with cardiac illness.
He was 69.
Kerik's high-profile career was peppered with both success and controversy.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, on Sept. 4, 1955, he served in the US Army before joining the NYPD in 1986.
Former NYPD Commissioner and national security expert Bernie Kerik has died at age 69.
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In 1994, he left the force and joined the Department of Corrections, being named its commissioner four years later by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also tapped him as the city's top cop in 2000.
Kerik was at the helm of the NYPD and received wide praise for deploying cops during the department's response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that downed the Twin Towers, earning the nickname 'America's Cop.'
In 2003, following the US invasion of Iraq, then-President George W. Bush named Kerik to head up a provisional police force in the post-war Middle Eastern nation.
The former top cop later founded Kerik Group, a private crisis and risk management consulting firm.
Kerik was hospitalized with an unnamed cardiac illness before his death on Thursday.
FREELANCE
Bush nominated Kerik to head the US Department of Homeland Security in 2004, but the ex-commissioner withdrew his nomination while admitting he had employed an illegal immigrant as a nanny — which led to his guilty plea to ethics violations in the Bronx in 2006.
His legal troubles worsened in 2009, when he pleaded guilty to eight federal felonies, including charges that he evaded taxes on a $255,000 gift for home repairs and made false statements to federal officials while being considered for the Homeland Security post.
Kerik served four years in federal prison before he was pardoned by Trump in 2020 during his first term in the White House.
More recently, Kerik was grilled by Congress during hearings stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and was subpoenaed to disclose privileged Trump administration documents reportedly linked to the investigation.
He is survived by his wife, Hala Matil Kerik, and three children, including a son with ex-wife Jacqueline Llerena.
