Rudy Giuliani promotions of Bernard Kerik

Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani KBE is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician from New York. He served as Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001....

, as mayor of the City of New York

Mayoralty of Rudy Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from January 1, 1994 until December 31, 2001.-Crime control:...

, promoted the career of Bernard Kerik

Bernard Kerik

Bernard Bailey "Bernie" Kerik is a former New York City Police Commissioner, Secretary of Homeland Security nominee, and now a federal felon. Kerik was New York City Police Commissioner from 2000 to 2001, under Mayor Rudy Giuliani. In December 2004, President George W. Bush nominated Kerik as...

(by appointment or recommendation) on several occasions. Critics have charged that Giuliani showed consistently poor judgment in doing so.

History of promotions

Bernard Kerik

, who started out as a New York Police Department detective driving for his campaign, then became the city's Commissioner of the Department of Correction

New York City Department of Correction

The New York City Department of Correction is responsible for New York City's inmates, housing the majority of them on Rikers Island. It employs 9,500 uniformed officers and 1,400 civilian staff, has 543 vehicles, and processes over 100,000 new inmates every year, retaining a population of inmates...

and later New York City Police Commissioner

New York City Police Commissioner

The New York City Police Commissioner is the head of the New York City Police Department, appointed by the Mayor of New York City. Governor Theodore Roosevelt, in one of his final acts before becoming Vice President of the United States in March 1901, signed legislation replacing the Police Board...

and a founder of Giuliani Partners

Giuliani Partners

Giuliani Partners LLC is a management consulting and security consulting business founded by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in January 2002.-Structure:...

. Kerik also served as bodyguard for Giuliani. Giuliani is godfather to Kerik's two younger children, by Kerik's third wife, Hala Matli (born 1972, married 1998): Celine Christina and Angelina Amber.

More than half of mayor Giuliani's cabinet opposed his 2000 appointment of Kerik as police commissioner. Kerik's selection came despite the fact that he lacked a college degree. (Kerik was a high school dropout with a General Equivalency Diploma.) Possession of a college degree was a requirement of police department officials at the captain rank and higher, a practice instituted by former police commissioner Benjamin Ward

Benjamin Ward

Benjamin Ward was the first African American New York City Police Commissioner. Ward was one of 11 children and was born in the Weeksville section of Brooklyn, New York.-Military and Police experience:...

.

After Giuliani's terms as mayor completed, Kerik became a founder of Giuliani Partners

Giuliani Partners

Giuliani Partners LLC is a management consulting and security consulting business founded by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in January 2002.-Structure:...

.

Giuliani then pushed President George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

to nominate Kerik to be Secretary of Homeland Security, at which point multiple scandals derailed the nomination and Kerik's career; subsequently Kerik pled guilty to corruption charges dating from his Corrections days (1999). (He pled guilty in Bronx court to state misdemeanor charges related to undeclared acceptance of $165,000 in apartment renovations performed by Interstate Industrial, a reputably mob-associated firm.) In March 2007, The New York Times reported that Kerik was likely to also be indicted for tax fraud and illegal eavesdropping, and also disclosed that Giuliani had testified under oath in April 2006 that he had in fact been briefed on Kerik's mob links in 2000 — prior to his appointment of Kerik as Corrections Commissioner. Giuliani had previously denied knowing of these connections until years later. Kerik is also under investigation for conspiracy to eavesdrop

Eavesdrop

To eavesdrop, used as a verb, refers to eavesdropping, the act of surreptitiously listening to a private conversation.As a noun, in architecture, it can refer to:...

on the conversations of the husband of Jeanine Pirro

Jeanine Pirro

Jeanine Ferris Pirro is a former prosecutor, judge, and elected official from the state of New York, who is currently a legal analyst and television personality. A Republican from Westchester County, Pirro served as a county court judge before serving as the elected District Attorney of...

, Albert Pirro, whom Ms. Pirro suspected of having an affair.

Briefing of Giuliani

Mayor Giuliani said that neither he nor his aides could remember being briefed about Kerik's involvement with Interstate Industrial. However, a late 2007 New York Times investigation of the diaries and investigator's notes of Edward J. Kuriansky, the city investigations commissioner, indicates that such a meeting did indeed occur. Additionally, Kuriansky also remembered briefing one of Giuliani's closest aides, Dennison Young Jr., about Kerik's involvement with Interstate Industrial just days before the police commissioner appointment. Regarding Giuliani's appointment patterns and loyalty as a factor in professional relationships, former deputy mayor (under Giuliani) Fran Reiter said, "Rudy can fall for people big time, and sometimes qualifications are secondary to loyalty."

Effect on Giuliani presidential campaign

Marc Mukasey, son of Michael Mukasey (then Attorney General

Attorney General

In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...

) and member of Bracewell & Giuliani

Bracewell & Giuliani

Bracewell & Giuliani LLP is an international law firm based in Houston, Texas, that began in 1945. The firm has over 470 lawyers, and has United States offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Hartford, San Antonio, Seattle, Dallas, and Austin, and overseas offices in Dubai, and London...

, has been assigned by Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign

Rudy Giuliani presidential campaign, 2008

Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign began following the formation of the Draft Giuliani movement in October 2005. The next year, Giuliani opened an exploratory committee and formally announced in February 2007 that he was actively seeking the presidential nomination of the Republican...

to block Kerik's legal defense team from interviewing witnesses that might assist his defense.
(When Giuliani joined the Bracewell firm, effecting the company's name change to Bracewell & Giuliani

Bracewell & Giuliani

, he brought Marc Mukasey into the firm.)

During a November 5, 2007 presidential campaign visit in Derry, New Hampshire

Derry, New Hampshire

-Climate:-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 33,109 people, 12,537 households, and 8,767 families residing in the town. The population density was 924.8 people per square mile . There were 13,277 housing units at an average density of 143.2/km²...

, Giuliani said, "I think Bernie Kerik, I should have checked out more carefully. I've said that. I've apologized for it." Giuliani then stressed Kerik's contribution to crime reduction in New York, as well as his record as Corrections Commissioner: "But the reality is we brought down crime in record proportions, we brought down violence in the prisons by record proportions." (However, Kerik had a relatively short term in New York City's police commissioner. He served for one year and four months, compared with the longer tenures of William Bratton and Howard Safir

Howard Safir

Howard Safir was New York City Fire Commissioner from 1994 to 1996 and New York City Police Commissioner from 1996 to 2000.Safir was appointed New York City's 29th Fire Commissioner of the City of New York by Mayor Rudolph W...

.) On November 8, Giuliani declined to say whether he would grant Kerik a presidential pardon were the circumstances to come about: "It wouldn't be fair to ask that question at this point. He may or may not be charged, he may or may not be convicted. Who knows what happens?"

Of Giuliani's Republican opponents, Senator John McCain

John McCain

John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....

was the most outspoken regarding the Kerik association and the doubt it cast upon Giuliani's judgement, saying, "That's why I never would've supported him to be the head of Homeland Security because of his irresponsible act when he was over in Baghdad to try and help train the police. One of the reasons why we had so much trouble with the initial training of the police was because he came, didn't do anything and then went out to the airport and left."

On November 13, 2007, former publisher Judith Regan

Judith Regan

Judith Regan is an American editor, producer, book publisher and television and radio talk show host. She is the mother of a son and a daughter and lives in New York City and Los Angeles.-Early life:...

, with whom Kerik had had an extramarital affair, filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against News Corporation

News Corporation

News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...

, claiming among other things that News Corporation executives told her in 2004 to lie to federal investigators about her relationship with Kerik, in order to protect Giuliani's future presidential campaign.

By late December 2007, the Kerik relationship was seen as one of the factors leading a difficult stretch for the Giuliani campaign.

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