Comments (19)

ihatebeets wrote on November 9, 2007 11:34 AM:

From a Washington Post article that ran this past April 8th:

--Kerik was fined $2,500 by New York City for using police detectives to help him with his autobiography. He was also a defendant in a civil lawsuit accusing him of retaliation against a corrections official who had disciplined a female prison guard with whom Kerik was having a relationship. Kerik was scheduled to give a deposition in the case right after his nomination was to be announced.

--One of Kerik's former top deputies was convicted of stealing money from a foundation that Kerik ran while serving as Giuliani's corrections chief. The foundation was funded by rebates from tobacco companies selling cigarettes to prison inmates.

--Kerik, who filed for bankruptcy as a police officer, became rich almost overnight after leaving office. Just before his nomination, he made a quick $6.2 million without investing a dime by exercising stock options from his service on the board of Taser International, a stun-gun firm seeking business with homeland security agencies.

--Kerik's tenure in Iraq generated strong criticism of his management. Iraqi officials complained to U.S. authorities about $1.2 billion Kerik spent to train Iraqi police officers in Jordan, spending they called wasteful. Iraqis also questioned why Kerik spent tens of millions of dollars to buy weapons for Iraqi trainees when the U.S. military had confiscated plenty of such weapons after the invasion.

ihatebeets wrote on November 9, 2007 11:35 AM:

From an April 8, 2007 WaPo article:

--Kerik was fined $2,500 by New York City for using police detectives to help him with his autobiography. He was also a defendant in a civil lawsuit accusing him of retaliation against a corrections official who had disciplined a female prison guard with whom Kerik was having a relationship. Kerik was scheduled to give a deposition in the case right after his nomination was to be announced.

--One of Kerik's former top deputies was convicted of stealing money from a foundation that Kerik ran while serving as Giuliani's corrections chief. The foundation was funded by rebates from tobacco companies selling cigarettes to prison inmates.

--Kerik, who filed for bankruptcy as a police officer, became rich almost overnight after leaving office. Just before his nomination, he made a quick $6.2 million without investing a dime by exercising stock options from his service on the board of Taser International, a stun-gun firm seeking business with homeland security agencies.

--Kerik's tenure in Iraq generated strong criticism of his management. Iraqi officials complained to U.S. authorities about $1.2 billion Kerik spent to train Iraqi police officers in Jordan, spending they called wasteful. Iraqis also questioned why Kerik spent tens of millions of dollars to buy weapons for Iraqi trainees when the U.S. military had confiscated plenty of such weapons after the invasion.

Redshift wrote on November 9, 2007 11:45 AM:

My favorite summary was from The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/01/10/050110ta_talk_mead):

The largest difficulty in considering the Kerik downfall is knowing in which niche of public disgrace to categorize him. As Henry Stern, the former Parks Commissioner, noted in his regular e-mail newsletter to friends and supporters the other day, “Officials have gotten into trouble for sexual misconduct, abusing their authority, personal bankruptcy, failure to file documents, waste of public funds, receiving substantial unrecorded gifts, and association with organized crime figures. It is rare for anyone to be under fire on all seven of the above issues.”

TheraP wrote on November 9, 2007 11:58 AM:

tpm - or someone - needs to make a list of worst bush picks for office:

Kerik is one. Brownie another. We can't leave off Harriet of course.

Perhaps a nice weekend post to allow all that stuff to accumulate.

beetsnotsobad wrote on November 9, 2007 12:01 PM:

Probably the wrong place to post this, but it needs attention that I cannot give it -
With all Giuliani's bragging about the decrease in crime over his tenure as mayor, we tend to forget that there was a coincident national decrease in crime - thought, in large part, to be the result of the end of the crack epidemic. It would be instructive to put Rudy's claimed successes in the context of the both national record and those of specific cities (e.g., LA, where is ousted police chief William Bratton went). Perhaps we can name a few big city mayors who were as or more effective than Rudy in bringing down crime and, not only that, but successfully prevented any Al Qaeda attacks from occurring in their cities.

tgr wrote on November 9, 2007 12:08 PM:

Often overlooked: Kerik was put in charge of training up Iraq's police force during the first few months of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Word has is that he slept most of the time, and when he DID do some work it was just to go on raids.

Heckuvajob.

Mellors wrote on November 9, 2007 12:34 PM:

If TPM is really smart it will buy the movie rights for this story...though will no doubt soon see a version on Law & Order. No bodies yet though? One day soon we will
see the B K story bundled with The Sopranos and it will be of a piece. When things get to this level only the Neo-Kafka can handle it on satisfying semi cathartic level.

oobi wrote on November 9, 2007 12:37 PM:

When buzz of an imminent indictment started surfacing earlier this week, I heard an NPR report say that Kerik had excused himself from the DHS post because of tax questions surrounding his domestic help. I think this was a top of the hour newscast, probably on Tuesday. Considering all I've read on TPM over the years, I guess I'd forgotten (though it rang a faint bell) that this was the "official" reason Kerik withdrew his nomination.

mm wrote on November 9, 2007 12:42 PM:

What bugs me is that Kerik used the "nanny problem" excuse to withdraw his nomination as homeland security chief. This implies that he was sloppy and hired an illegal alien as a nanny (just like so many others do) or hadn't done the complicated withholding/Social Security tax payments correctly. President Clinton had to withdraw his first nominee for Attorney General (Zoe Baird) because of this problem. There are a lot of people who have sympathy for this problem and Kerik slid himself into a sympathetic position rather than a position of scorn for all the illegal things he did.

catfish wrote on November 9, 2007 12:44 PM:

oobi, yes and there must be tape of Giuliani acknowleding this false reason even when he knew the truth. Add it to the list of Giuliani lies.

Dred wrote on November 9, 2007 12:55 PM:

As far as I know, there has been no press mention of something that was not a crime by Kerik, but an example of his ongoing administrative negligence, something that strikes at the heart of Guiliani's "I was the only one on guard before Islamofascism before 9/11" bluff. On Kerik's watch, while he was administering New York City's corrections department, numerous corrections officers (along with other uniformed service officers like policemen and firemen) were recruited into a tax-evasion scheme which involved their claiming to be citizens of something called "the Moorish Nation" and thus not under the jurisdiction of U.S. laws. On this basis, they refused to pay Federal income tax. One participant in this scheme, which in the end involved perhaps a thousand uniformed New York City civil servants, was the deputy commissioner of the Corrections Department.
Now think about this a second. The atmosphere established by Kerik in the Corrections Department was conducive to a huge portion of his staff deciding not only to break the law, but in addition to brazenly forswear allegiance to the United States government in favor of "the Moorish Nation" (a fringe black nationalist conception, which did not prevent a number of Caucasian uniformed service members from participating). (Granted this was pre-9/11, what does the conception of a "Moorish Nation" bring to mind but the Al Qaida notion of the "restored Caliphate"?) This happened on Kerik's and Guiliani's watch: a shining example of their stalwart and prescient struggle against Islamofascism. We would all sleep safer after this kind of leadership was installed in the Department of Homeland Security.
For details on the above, consult The Chief, a weekly newspaper directed to New York City's civil service work force, under the editorship of Richard Steier.

cynicalgirl wrote on November 9, 2007 1:00 PM:

IIRC, according to Michael Isikoff, Newsweek had a copy of an outstanding arrest warrant for Bernie. They faxed it to the White House and his name was withdrawn a half hour later. So the maid story was just a cover-up.

That warrant had something to do with a dispute over maintenance fees on a condo. The warrant was outstanding at the time Bernie was named top cop.

I believe the NY Times did a piece on that maid, too.

Just to add to the collection...

dmg wrote on November 9, 2007 1:24 PM:

mm mentions the nanny problem: BUT it was never established that there actually WAS a nanny. it was cited as the reason he had to "withdraw" his nomination, but iirc the times tried to track down the nanny, who was never identified AND was said to be back in her home country.
the point -- kerik and giuliani and the bushies never EVER have an exit strategy.

low-tech cyclist wrote on November 9, 2007 2:30 PM:

Props to dmg for pointing out that there's zero evidence (other than Kerik's word, which hardly counts) of the 'nanny problem,' or even that Kerik had ever hired a nanny.

It was just a red herring, but one the press corps has seemed willing to fall for.

Any reporter or commentator to mentions it now, other than to ridicule the notion that Kerik withdrew on account of a nanny problem, should be given a wedgie. Or several.

farmgirl wrote on November 9, 2007 3:23 PM:

dmg and low-tech cyclist beat me to it.

laura strand wrote on November 9, 2007 6:43 PM:

Didn't he also have an inordinate number of "busts" (plaster castings of his head and neck) created kind of Il Duce like?

benjoya wrote on November 9, 2007 7:30 PM:

glad people have mentioned bernie's tenure in iraq. he didn't finish out his contract there; too dangerous. and, as pointed out, Bernie slept much of the day, so he could go play dirty harry at night.

uikert tupo wrote on November 11, 2007 9:09 AM:

test test test test
name name anme

maher radi wrote on November 27, 2007 8:47 PM:

A MAN IS KNOWN BY THE COMPANY HE KEEPS

Kerik is Giuliani's best friend