Bernard Kerik, Man Who Led NYPD on 9/11, Dies After Battle with Illness

Conservative News DailyMay 30, 2025

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Bernard Kerik, a former New York City police commissioner and notable figure during the 9/11 attacks, has passed away at the age of 69 after battling an unspecified illness. His death prompted reflections from notable individuals, including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who expressed deep sorrow and described Kerik as a brother. new York City Mayor Eric Adams also expressed his condolences, highlighting thier long friendship.

Kerik is remembered as a hero for his leadership following the September 11 attacks, having been nominated to lead the Department of homeland Security.However, his career took a notable downturn when he pleaded guilty to tax fraud and other charges in 2009, resulting in nearly four years in prison. His legal troubles stemmed in part from questionable renovations made to an apartment he owned, which led to allegations of corruption linked to organized crime.

Despite his controversies, kerik had a storied career that began in the Army before entering law enforcement. He became NYPD commissioner in 2000 and was closely associated with Giuliani during a critical period in New York’s history. Late in his life, Kerik was involved in political efforts linked to Donald Trump, who pardoned him in 2020.

Kerik’s journey from a prominent police figure to a convicted felon illustrates a dramatic rise and fall, while he remained a controversial and complex figure in American law enforcement.

Bernard Kerik, who served as New York City’s police commissioner on 9/11 and later pleaded guilty to tax fraud before being pardoned, has died. He was 69.

FBI Director Kash Patel said that Kerik’s death Thursday came after an unspecified “private battle with illness.”

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who tapped Kerik as a bodyguard for his 1993 mayoral campaign and later appointed him to lead the NYPD, reflected on their long history on his show Thursday.

“We’ve been together since the beginning. He’s like my brother,” Giuliani said through tears. “I was a better man for having known Bernie. I certainly was a braver and stronger man.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, also a former NYPD officer, said he’d visited Kerik, his ”friend of nearly 30 years,” at a hospital earlier in the day.

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.

He served nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty in 2009 to tax fraud, making false statements and other charges. The charges stemmed partially from apartment renovations he received from a construction firm that authorities say wanted Kerik to convince New York officials it had no links to organized crime.

During Kerik’s sentencing, the judge noted that he committed some of the crimes while serving as “the chief law enforcement officer for the biggest and grandest city this nation has.”

President Donald Trump pardoned Kerik during a 2020 clemency blitz. Kerik was one of the guests feting Trump after his first federal court appearance in Florida in a case related to his handling of classified documents.

Kerik grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, where he dropped out of the troubled Eastside High School later depicted in the 1989 film “Lean on Me.”

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.

He joined the NYPD in the late 1980s and was appointed in the 1990s to run New York’s long-troubled jail system, including the city’s notorious Riker’s Island complex.

Kerik was appointed by Giuliani to serve as police commissioner in 2000 and was often by the mayor’s side in the period after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“He was at my side within 20 minutes of the attack and never left,” Giuliani recalled in a statement following Kerik’s death.

In Kerik’s 2015 book, “From Jailer to Jailed,” he described becoming “America’s Top Cop” after the attacks.

“But I’d give anything for that day not to have happened. I wish it hadn’t. But it did,” he wrote. “And I happened to be there at the time. I was there, and I did the best I could do under the circumstances. It’s all any of us did.”

He was tapped by President George W. Bush to help organize Iraq’s police force in 2003, then nominated to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security the following year.

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.

More serious legal troubles followed, culminating in his conviction.

In 2005, Kerik founded the Kerik Group, a crisis and risk management consulting firm.

More recently, he worked for Giuliani again, surrounding the efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss.

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