For all of Rudy Giuliani’s many controversial associates, I suspect he’d be most pleased if the name “Bernie Kerik” is never uttered in public again. Kerik, of course, was Giuliani’s police commissioner and the man Giuliani recommended to head Bush’s Department of Homeland Security.
And while Kerik’s name quickly became an embarrassment for the former mayor, it keeps getting worse.
Bernard Kerik’s legal nightmare is about to get worse, with federal prosecutors expected to file charges against the former police commissioner that will likely include allegations of bribery, tax fraud and obstruction of justice, the Daily News has learned.
The indictment, expected next month, could prove to be an embarrassing obstacle for Kerik’s former mentor Rudy Giuliani, who is cruising at the top of the polls heading into the presidential primary gauntlet.
The bribery allegations against Kerik stem from a secret meeting at a bar in Tribeca, according to two sources familiar with the federal probe.
For several years, Kerik had no greater champion than Rudy Giuliani, who promoted him to New York correction commissioner, then to police commissioner. Giuliani then gave Kerik a job at Giuliani Partners, before urging the Bush White House to make Kerik the top man at the Department of Homeland Security.
The New York Daily News noted that Kerik’s latest charges “will have direct implications for Giuliani.” I think that’s a safe assumption.
Giuliani’s Kerik problem goes back years, but let’s not forget one key detail: Giuliani’s former chief investigator briefed the mayor on Kerik’s alleged organized crime connections before Giuliani named Kerik police commissioner.
Mr. Giuliani, testifying last year under oath before a Bronx grand jury investigating Mr. Kerik, said he had no memory of the briefing, but he did not dispute that it had taken place, according to a transcript of his testimony.
Mr. Giuliani’s testimony amounts to a significantly new version of what information was probably before him in the summer of 2000 as he was debating Mr. Kerik’s appointment as the city’s top law enforcement officer. Mr. Giuliani had previously said that he had never been told of Mr. Kerik’s entanglement with the company before promoting him to the police job or later supporting his failed bid to be the nation’s homeland security secretary.
This is kind of tough to spin. Either Giuliani knowingly blew off a briefing about Kerik’s ties to organized crime, or Giuliani’s chief investigator warned him about it and Giuliani made Kerik police commissioner anyway.
Giuliani’s defense is a faulty memory. He told the grand jury that he had been briefed on Kerik’s background, possibly more than once, but “must have simply forgotten” the concerns. At one point during the grand jury proceedings, a senior Bronx prosecutor, asked Giuliani, “As you sit here today, your testimony is, and correct me if I am wrong, that you don’t recall ever being told that a close friend of your correction commissioner had been indicted in a federal case?”
Mr. Giuliani responded: “I don’t recall that until 2004. I can’t tell you that it wasn’t, but I don’t — I don’t — I don’t remember.”
Ladies and gentlemen, your Republican front-runner.