Bernard Kerik Was Pardoned by President Trump. Who Is He?

Kerik was granted a full pardon for his 2010 conviction on eight felonies, including tax fraud and lying to White House officials.

After the pardon, Kerik, 64, said on Twitter: “There are no words to express my appreciation and gratitude to President Trump.

“With the exception of the birth of my children,” he added, “today is one of the greatest days of my life.”

Kerik began his rise to prominence as Giuliani’s bodyguard and chauffeur during the 1993 mayoral race.

When Giuliani won, Kerik’s ascent was swift. His eventual fall was quick as well.

A Swift Ascent

A detective at the time of the 1993 campaign, Kerik had joined the New York Police Department six years earlier after serving as warden of the Passaic County, New Jersey, jail.

Giuliani’s victory over the incumbent mayor, David N. Dinkins, vaulted Kerik, a high school dropout with a scruffy charm, into a series of high-ranking positions in the city’s Department of Correction.

Eventually, Giuliani named Kerik correction commissioner in 1997, and Kerik won praise for reducing violence in the city’s jails. As evidence of his clout, Kerik had a city jail in lower Manhattan named after him. (The name was later changed.)

In 2000, Giuliani, having been reelected to a second term, appointed Kerik as police commissioner. His role as the Police Department’s leader at the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks raised Kerik’s national profile.

After Giuliani left office, Kerik joined the former mayor’s security consulting firm and earned millions of dollars over several years.

A Stunning Fall

In December 2004, at Giuliani’s urging, President George W. Bush nominated Kerik to become homeland security secretary. But within a week, Kerik had withdrawn his name from consideration, citing what he said were questions about the immigration status of a nanny he had once employed.

The nomination’s collapse was the beginning of the end of Kerik’s career.

In June 2006, he pleaded guilty in state Supreme Court in the Bronx to two misdemeanors tied to renovations done on his apartment in Riverdale by a New Jersey construction firm suspected of being linked to organized crime. He paid $221,000 in fines and penalties but avoided jail time.

Four years later, in the federal case that yielded the conviction at issue in Trump’s pardon, Kerik 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 posts.

The judge in the case, Stephen C. Robinson, sentenced Kerik to four years in prison — more than either the prosecution or defense had recommended. He was released after serving three years.

“I think it’s fair to say that with great power comes great responsibility and great consequences,” Robinson said at the sentencing. “I think the damage caused by Mr. Kerik is in some ways immeasurable.”

Kerik, a regular guest on Fox News programs, has more recently been in the news for his connection to Lawrence Ray, who is charged with extortion and the sex trafficking of his daughter’s classmates at Sarah Lawrence College. Ray was the best man at Kerik’s wedding in 1998.

According to a White House statement, supporters of a pardon for Kerik included Giuliani, Fox News host Geraldo Rivera, musician Charlie Daniels and Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .