56 Facts About Bernard Kerik

Bernard Bailey Kerik was born on September 4,1955 and is an American consultant and former police officer who was the 40th Commissioner of the New York Police Department from 2000 to 2001.

Bernard Kerik conducted two extramarital affairs simultaneously, using a Battery Park City apartment that had been set aside for first responders at ground zero.

However, Bernard Kerik soon withdrew his candidacy, explaining that he had employed an undocumented immigrant as a nanny.

In 2006, Bernard Kerik pleaded guilty in the Bronx Supreme Court to two unrelated misdemeanor ethics violations and was ordered to pay $221,000 in fines.

In 2009, Bernard Kerik pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to eight federal felony charges.

Bernard Kerik was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Patricia Joann and Donald Raymond Bernard Kerik Sr.

Bernard Kerik was raised Catholic and grew up in Paterson, New Jersey.

Bernard Kerik attended Eastside High School in Paterson, and dropped out in 1972.

From December 1981 to October 1982 and then July 1984 to July 1986, Bernard Kerik worked at the Passaic County sheriff's office, in New Jersey.

Bernard Kerik served as the department's training officer and commander of special weapons and operations, and ultimately chief and warden of the Passaic County jail.

Bernard Kerik worked from 1982 to 1984 as chief of investigations for the security division of the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Six members of the hospital security staff, including Bernard Kerik, were fired and deported after an investigation in 1984 by the Saudi secret police.

Bernard Kerik joined the New York City Police Department in 1986.

Bernard Kerik first met Rudolph W Giuliani in 1990, and during the 1993 New York City mayoral election campaign, served as Giuliani's bodyguard and driver.

Bernard Kerik joined the New York City Department of Corrections in 1994, and enjoyed a series of promotions with Giuliani's backing.

Bernard Kerik was credited with reducing violence among the city's jail inmates.

Bernard Kerik's critics noted that he did not have a college degree, which at the time was a requirement for police officers to advance to the rank of captain and above.

Bernard Kerik had taken up with a woman who was a correction officer; he was accused of directing officers to staff his wedding.

Bernard Kerik befriended the agency's inspector general, whose watchdog responsibilities require keeping an arms-length relationship, and the investigator attended his wedding.

On one occasion, Bernard Kerik sent homicide investigators to interview and fingerprint a number of Fox News employees whom Bernard Kerik's publisher, Judith Regan, suspected of stealing a necklace and mobile phone.

Bernard Kerik was in his office when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower.

Bernard Kerik arrived at the base of the North Tower three minutes before United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower, showering him and his staff with debris as Giuliani, Kerik, and their top aides were trapped inside a building at 75 Barclay Street.

Bernard Kerik served 16 months as commissioner, leaving office on December 31,2001, at the end of Giuliani's term.

Bernard Kerik has served as an adviser and consultant to King Abdullah II of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and to President Bharrat Jagdeo of the Republic of Guyana.

Bernard Kerik has overseen threat and vulnerability assessments for a ruling family in the United Arab Emirates and has worked on crime reduction and national security strategies in Trinidad and Tobago.

In May 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Kerik was appointed by the George W Bush administration as interim Interior Minister of Iraq and senior policy adviser to US presidential envoy to Iraq, Paul Bremer.

Bernard Kerik was responsible for restructuring and rebuilding the ministry and all its constituent parts: the national police, intelligence service, and border and customs police, as well as choosing the officials who would take control of these institutions when he left.

On December 3,2004, Bernard Kerik was nominated by President Bush to succeed Tom Ridge as United States Secretary of Homeland Security.

Bernard Kerik stated that he had unknowingly hired an undocumented worker as a nanny and housekeeper.

Shortly after withdrawing his name from consideration, Bernard Kerik became the target of a New York State grand jury investigation by the Bronx District Attorney's Office, and later, the United States Attorney's Office.

Bernard Kerik acknowledged that during the time he was Interior Minister of Iraq, he accepted a $250,000 interest-free "loan" from Israeli billionaire Eitan Wertheimer and failed to report it.

Bernard Kerik first met the billionaire, whose vast holdings include major defense contractors, when Bernard Kerik took a four-day trip to Israel less than two weeks before September 11,2001, to discuss counter-terrorism with Israeli officials.

On November 8,2007, Bernard Kerik was indicted by a federal grand jury in White Plains, New York on charges of tax fraud, and making false statements to the federal government about the $250,000 he received from Wertheimer.

Prosecutors further accused Kerik of receiving about $236,000 from New York real estate mogul Steven C Witkoff between 2001 and 2003.

Some New York charges were dropped in December 2008, but Bernard Kerik was then re-indicted on the same charges in Washington, DC.

On November 5,2009, Bernard Kerik pleaded guilty to eight felony tax and false statement charges, specifically two counts of tax fraud, one count of making a false statement on a loan application, and five counts of making false statements.

Bernard Kerik was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison and three years' supervised release.

Bernard Kerik surrendered to the US minimum security prison camp in Cumberland, Maryland, on May 17,2010.

Bernard Kerik was discharged from federal custody on October 15,2013, and after serving five months' home confinement, his supervised release concluded in October 2016.

Bernard Kerik was granted a presidential pardon for his federal convictions by President Donald Trump on February 18,2020.

On November 7,2020, following the 2020 United States presidential election, Bernard Kerik stood behind Giuliani, then Trump's personal lawyer, during the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Shortly after Joe Biden's victory over Trump in the 2020 United States presidential election, Bernard Kerik claimed to have evidence of widespread voter fraud, falsely claiming that Trump had actually won the election.

On December 31,2021, Bernard Kerik forwarded a letter to the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack holding hearings regarding the 2021 Capitol riot indicating his conditional willingness to testify as to his knowledge of that event.

Bernard Kerik provided documents that included the outline of a strategy to overturn the election, and his involvement in securing space at the Willard Hotel, nearby the Capitol, for the Trump team's "war room" and the Kerrick firm's billing of over $55,000 for rooms there for legal personnel, plus $10,000 in travel expenses.

Bernard Kerik had received a proposed plan from QAnon conspiracy circulator Ron Watkins on November 11,2020, which was meant to facilitate the overturning of the election.

Bernard Kerik forwarded it the next day to her team member Kerik.

Ryan forwarded to Ron Watkins the Bernard Kerik offer to help overturn the election.

Bernard Kerik earned 30 NYPD medals for excellent, meritorious, and heroic service, including the New York City Police Department Medal for Valor for his involvement in a gun battle in which his partner was shot and wounded and he and his team members returned fire.

Bernard Kerik has received honorary doctorates from Michigan State University, New York Institute of Technology, Manhattanville College, College of New Rochelle, and Iona College, and he received the President's Medal from Hunter College.

Bernard Kerik's first child, a girl, was born in October 1975 when he was 20 and serving in South Korea as a military policeman.

In February 1976, Bernard Kerik completed his tour of duty in South Korea and abandoned his daughter and her mother.

Bernard Kerik's mother emigrated to the US and married an American.

Bernard Kerik learned of Kerik's life decades later when she saw him on television and notified their daughter of his location.

In 2001 Bernard Kerik published a memoir, The Lost Son: A Life in Pursuit of Justice, a New York Times best-seller.

On September 11,2021, Bernard Kerik was featured on The Shawn Ryan Show video podcast, recounting experiences he'd had throughout his professional career.

Bernard Kerik recalled arriving on scene at the WTC just before the second plane - United Airlines Flight 175 - struck the south tower.