Bernard Kerik, New York’s Police Commissioner on 9/11, Dies at 69 trendy New year 2025

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 Bernard Kerik, New York’s Police Commissioner on 9/11, Dies at 69

 His meteoric rise to become New York City’s chief law enforcement officer was later tarnished after he pleaded guilty to federal corruption and tax crimes.

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 Kerik, wearing a suit, stands with two other men in suits.

 Bernard Kerik, right, who spent 16 months as New York City’s police commissioner, at a hearing in Washington in January.Credit... Mark Peterson for The New York Times

 Sam Roberts

 By Sam Roberts

 Released on May 29, 2025 Updated at 8:34 a.m. on May 30, 2025. ET

 Bernard B. Kerik, the New York City police commissioner who was hailed as a hero for overseeing the department’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, only to fall from grace after he pleaded guilty to federal corruption and tax crimes, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 69.

 Kash Patel, the director of the F.B.I., announced Mr. the passing of Kerik in a post on X. He stated that the former commissioner passed away "after a private illness battle." With a shaved head, bulging biceps, a black belt in karate, and cocksure high school dropout, Mr. Kerik vaulted to senior public posts as a disciple of Rudolph W. Gilani after serving as Mr. Giuliani’s bodyguard during his successful 1993 mayoral campaign.

 In 1997, after Mr. Kerik rose through the ranks of the Police Department from a street cop in Times Square and narcotics investigator, Mr. Gillian promoted him to correction commissioner, where he curbed sick time abuse by guards and reduced violence by inmates.

 Mr. Kerik’s appointment as police commissioner in August 2000 was not well received, in part because of his rapid promotions despite his lack of a college degree, which uniformed police officers ordinarily needed for promotion to captain and above. Prior to becoming commissioner, detective third grade was his highest rank. He later went on to earn a degree in 2002.

 During his Months term as police commissioner, which ended in 2001, Mr. Giuliani’s mayoral term ended, crime continued the decline that was accomplished most by two of his predecessors, Raymond W. Kelly and William J. Brampton. The officers' morale rose. So did relations between the department and Black and Hispanic New Yorker who had been alienated by incidents of police abuse.

 But Mr. Until Mr. Patrick's resignation on December 31, 2001, he was accused of tyrannical management and abuse of power as commissioner. Gilani resigned as mayor. Image

 Kerik wears a jacket that reads “NYPD” and stands next to Gilani and a third man. To the side and behind them are towering skyscrapers. Mr. Kerik, right, who was then New York’s police commissioner, with the city’s mayor at the time, Rudolph W. Gilani, in 2001. Mr. Kerik vaulted to senior public posts as a disciple of the mayor.Credit... Kathy Willens/Associated Press

 Like the mayor himself, Mr. Kerik was praised for his response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. 11, 2001. He and Mr. To expedite the World Trade Center's evacuation, Gillian rushed to the scene. They were temporarily trapped in a nearby building after being surrounded by tower collapse debris. Among the honors bestowed on Mr. Kerik was his appointment as a Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

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 After leaving the Police Department, Mr. Kerik made millions of dollars working as a security consultant for the former mayor’s firm, Gilani Partners, whose clients included companies and foreign governments seeking advice on crisis management and counterterrorism.

 Mr. Kerik went on to start his own consulting business, working with clients like King Abdullah II of Jordan, Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo, and the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates. He worked as a security consultant for the Katari monarchy in the recent past. Following the invasion of Iraq in 2003, President George W. Bush appointed Mr. Kerik served as the interior minister for the provisional authority in that nation. He recruited thousands of police officers and assembled a SWAT team to pursue kidnappers and insurgents.

 However, a series of embarrassing public setbacks soon stalled his career. He was appointed by the president to head the Department of Homeland Security in 2004, but he resigned a week later because, according to him, he had hired an undocumented immigrant as a babysitter and failed to pay payroll taxes. His admission triggered several investigations.

 It was revealed that while he was married with two children and living in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, he had rented an apartment in Battery Park City in Lower Manhattan to conduct an extramarital affair with Judith Regan, who had published his best-selling memoir. The apartment had originally been donated by a developer for use by rescue workers at the World Trade Center site.

 Image

 Kerik stands at a lectern as Bush looks on.

 Mr. Kerik after being nominated to run the Homeland Security Department by President George W. Bush in 2004. A week later, he withdrew. Credit... Pool/Getty Images/Ron Sachs In 2006, he pleaded guilty in State Supreme Court in the Bronx to two misdemeanors involving renovations to his apartment in Riverdale, while he was correction commissioner, by a New Jersey construction firm suspected of links to organized crime. He was fined $221,000.

 He was accused of tax fraud in 2007. The information provided by his former friend Larry Ray, who was later accused of running a sex cult at Manchester Sarah Lawrence College, was a part of the federal indictment. Mr. Kerik was charged with lying to government investigators about not reporting a $250,000 interest-free loan from Israeli billionaire Titan Wertheimer while he was serving the Iraqi provisional government and a $236,000 loan from Steven C. Witkoff, a real estate magnate from New York. In 2009, he pleaded guilty to two counts of tax fraud, one count of making a false statement on a loan application and five counts of making false statements to the federal government while being vetted for senior positions. He was sentenced to four years in prison and served three.

 His name was stripped from the Manhattan jail complex, better known as The Tombs, that had been rebranded in his honor.

 In 2020, following Mr. Kerik was granted a full pardon by President Trump, he joined Mr. Gillian in falsely blaming the president’s loss to Joseph R. Biden Jr. on fraudulent voting.

 In 2021, he provided the House Select Committee that was looking into the attack on the Capitol on January 6 with documents that implicated him in other attempts to overturn Mr. Biden’s election.

 Mr. Kerik remained a staunch Trump supporter. The previous month, Mr. Kerik complained in The Washington Times about “the repeated attempts of President Trump’s political enemies to use the law and the agencies ostensibly in charge of enforcing it to attack and silence him.”

 Image

 In the background, a crowd clearly identifies Kerik, who is wearing a dark suit and a red tie. In front, Trump and another man are out of focus.

 Mr. Kerik, a vocal proponent of President Trump, testified for Mr. Trump in 2024. Credit... Dave Sanders for The New York Times

 Bernard Bailey Kerik was born on Sept. 4, 1955 in Newark, the son of Donald R. Kerik Sr., a machinist for Ford Motor Company. His paternal grandfather migrated to Pennsylvania from Ukraine, became a coal miner, and changed the family name from Kapur.

 Patricia Joann (Bailey) Kerik was an Irish American mother. He described her as a prostitute in his memoir, saying that she left him when he was 3 years old and mysteriously killed herself six years later, probably by her accomplice. Mr. Kerik was raised in Paterson, N.J. He attended Eastside High School, but dropped out in 1972. In 1974, he enlisted in the Army and served in the military police in South Korea. While stationed at Fort Brain in North Carolina, he received a General Educational Development certificate and in 2002, after leaving the Police Department, he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in social theory by Empire State College of the State University of New York.

 He began working for the New Jersey sheriff's office in Passive County in December 1981. From 1982 to 1984, he was a chief investigator for a hospital in Saudi Arabia, but was fired after directing the security staff to surveil women with whom the hospital administrator was romantically involved.

 He joined the New York Police Department in 1986 and earned dozens of medals as he rose through the ranks. In 1994, he went to work for the Department of Correction. Four years later, Mr. He was appointed commissioner by Gillian, a position he held until he rejoined the Police Department. He published two memoirs, "From Jailer to Jailed: My Journey from Correction and Police Commissioner to Inmate 84888-054" (2015) and "The Lost Son: A Life in Pursuit of Justice" (2001). Additionally, he published the crime novel "The Grave Above the Grave" (2018). Mr. Kerik was married three times after having a daughter with a woman in South Korea in 1975 while he was serving in the Army. When his tour of duty was over, he left them. When the mother saw him on television decades later, she found out where he was. In his memoir, he lamented that his behavior was “a mistake I will always regret, and I pray to God that one day I can make it right.”

 Image

 Kerik wears a dark jacket and dark shirt, and a light colored hat while standing at a lectern.

 Mr. Kerik at the 2024 Charlie Daniels Patriot Awards in Nashville.Credit... Jason Kempin/Getty Images

 In 1978, he wed Linda Hales, and the couple divorced in 1983. He had a son, Joseph, with his second wife, Jacqueline Llerena; their marriage lasted from 1983 to 1992. In 1998, he married Hala Matli. Celine and Angelina, the couple's two daughters, were born in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. His wife, son and daughters survive him.

 Mr. Kerik, who had a radio show on WABC after serving with the city, was a fervent booster of both the Bush and Trump administrations.

 “With the exception of the birth of my children, today is one of the greatest days of my life,” Mr. Kerik mentioned that Mr. In 2020, Trump granted him a pardon. Trying to place his roller coaster career in context, Mr. Kerik told New York magazine in 2005: “I made some major mistakes, and they catch up to you. I didn’t focus enough on ethical issues. But I still believe that my successes over my Five-year career outweigh the errors in judgment.”

 Francesca Regalado contributed reporting.

 Sam Roberts is a reporter for The Times who writes mini-biographies about notable people's lives. See more on: Bernard B. Kerik, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Correction Department (NYC), New York City Police Department [NYPD], Rudolph W. Gilani

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