Bernard “Bernie” Kerik, the town’s police commissioner on 9/11 and a detailed ally of President Trump, died Thursday at age 69.
Kerik had been commissioner for only one yr earlier than he was confronted with the most important terroristic assault ever on U.S. soil on Sept. 11, 2001. He heroically led the NYPD via the devastating rescue and restoration efforts. However later, his profession was overshadowed by a number of scandals, together with a responsible plea for federal tax fraud for which he served three years in jail.
Kerik was admitted to the hospital on Could 6 after struggling a critical sickness, however was anticipated to get well. His dying was introduced late Thursday, and tributes to Kerick poured in.
“It was just this afternoon that I stopped by the hospital to see Bernie Kerik, my friend of nearly 30 years, before his passing,” Mayor Eric Adams posted on X. “He was with his loved ones who are in my prayers tonight. He was a great New Yorker and American. Rest in peace, my friend.”
“Today, 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,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X Thursday night time.
”Bernie handed away tragically on Could 29, 2025, after a personal battle with sickness. With over forty years of service in legislation enforcement and nationwide safety, he devoted his life to defending the American folks. Because the fortieth Police Commissioner of New York Metropolis, Bernie led with energy and resolve within the aftermath of the September eleventh assaults, guiding the NYPD via one of many darkest chapters in our nation’s historical past.”
Kerik joined the NYPD in 1986. Earlier than serving as police commissioner, he was commissioner of the NYC Division of Corrections from 1998 to 2000. After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, President George W. Bush appointed Kerik to guide the nation’s transitional authorities, and in 2004 nominated him to guide the newly created Division of Homeland Safety. Kerik quickly withdrew his candidacy, nonetheless, after it got here to gentle that he employed an undocumented immigrant as a nanny.
USA-CRIME/
EDUARDO MUNOZ/REUTERS
Former New York Metropolis Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who served time in jail, at Federal Courthouse in downtown Manhattan.
Authorized issues continued to canine Kerik. In 2009 Kerik pleaded responsible to tax fraud and making false statements within the court docket of the Southern District of New York, for which he served three years in jail.
He later emerged triumphant, nonetheless. President Trump formally pardoned him in 2020. Afterward he proved a stalwart ally of Trump, and supported his claims of voter fraud that result in the riot on Jan. 6, 2020.
Kerik was born in Newark, N.J., to Patricia Joann (née Bailey) and Donald Raymond Kerik Sr., a veteran of the Military. Kerik was a narcotics detective within the NYPD when he went to work for then-Republican mayoral candidate Rudy Giuliani’s marketing campaign. He grew to become his driver in the course of the contest by which Giuliani defeated Mayor David Dinkins in 1992.
Giuliani tapped Kerik as a chief of employees and head of safety for the Correction Division, earlier than he rose to Correction commissioner. As commissioner, he was recognized for instituting NYPD-style statistical monitoring and was lauded within the New York Instances for lowering stabbings and slashings within the system which on the time was bulging with greater than 15,000 detainees. Within the put up, he surrounded himself with a coterie of loyalists and typically acted as if he was head of a mob household.
In 2000, Giuliani changed then-Police Commissioner Howard Safir with Kerik — the rise from detective to move of the NYPD was now full. After the 2001 terror assaults, Kerik together with Giuliani grew to become nationwide figures for his or her dealing with of the aftermath.
Antonelli for Information
Bernard Kerik was the highest cop within the metropolis underneath Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Kerik’s high-profile profession was marred by a collection of scandals. He used police personnel to take pictures for his autobiography, and to assist examine the lifetime of his mom for the e-book, titled “The Lost Son: A Life in Pursuit of Justice.”
He had affairs with a feminine correction officers and HarperCollins writer Judith Regan — together with an episode the place he ordered detectives to search out Regan’s purse that she believed had been stolen. One of many locations he met together with his paramours was an condo close to Floor Zero that had been loaned for his use by an actual property developer.
The legislation caught up with him when he was charged with tax fraud and mendacity to federal investigators in 2007, after taking $250,000 from an Israeli billionaire and one other $236,000 from a New York developer. He pleaded responsible in 2009 and was sentenced to 48 months in jail and launched in 2013.
Richard Harbus for Information York Each day Information
Former Police Commissoner Bernard Kerik leaves the Bronx Corridor of Justice in a jail jumpsuit and shackles on Oct. seventeenth.
He additionally befriended Lawrence Ray, who related him with a allegedly mob-linked building agency that did a free renovation of his Riverdale, Bronx, condo. Kerik served as a cooperating witness towards Ray, who later was embroiled within the Sarah Lawrence intercourse cult case and was convicted in 2022 of extortion, pressured prostitution and compelled labor.
Kerik is survived by his spouse, Hala Kerik, and his three kids, Celine, Angelina and Joseph.
Initially Printed: Could 29, 2025 at 9:48 PM EDT
