Bernie Kerik, Again!

Just like Abramoff, Kerik is the gift that keeps on giving. Poor Rudy, bad judgment comes home to roost, again, in his support for Bernie. One has to wonder how Rudy’s judgments on very important things like security and law and order will be judged by his championing of Bernie Kerik for the head of Home Land Security, etc.. Will this effect his Presidential aspirations? One can only hope so. Real “New Yorkers” aren’t bamboozled by his 9/11 mythology! We know better, because we lived it!

Here is the story from the NYT’s:

March 14, 2007

Kerik Is Said to Refuse a Plea That Calls for Prison Time

By RUSS BUETTNER and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

Federal investigators offered to end their criminal investigation of Bernard B. Kerik, the city’s former police and correction commissioner, in exchange for his pleading guilty to charges that he engaged in federal tax fraud and wiretap conspiracy, but he refused, according to Mr. Kerik’s lawyer and a person briefed on the case.

The plea offer was made during a 90-minute meeting last month between Perry A. Carbone and Elliott B. Jacobson, two assistant United States attorneys in Manhattan, and one of Mr. Kerik’s lawyers, Kenneth M. Breen, a former federal prosecutor who is now a partner with the firm of Fulbright & Jaworski.

“Mr. Kerik rejected the plea offer because he paid his taxes and did nothing wrong,” said Mr. Breen, who represents Mr. Kerik along with another lawyer, Joseph Tacopina.

Federal investigators in recent months have explored a range of allegations about Mr. Kerik, a leading official under Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, including accusations he conspired to help the former Westchester County district attorney, Jeanine F. Pirro, plant listening devices to catch her husband in an extramarital affair. Mr. Kerik and Ms. Pirro were captured on a state wiretap discussing such a plan.

Investigators have also been reviewing the circumstances under which Mr. Kerik accepted $165,000 in free renovations to his Bronx apartment in 1999 from Interstate Industrial Corporation, a New Jersey contractor, or a subsidiary. Last summer in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, Mr. Kerik pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts and admitted accepting the free work.

At the time, Mr. Tacopina said Mr. Kerik did not owe any federal taxes on the construction work.

Mr. Breen declined to discuss the negotiations in detail and it is unclear how the proposed charges relate to Mr. Kerik’s conversations with Ms. Pirro or to the work on his apartment. But the proposed deal would have required Mr. Kerik to serve some time in prison, and is one indication of how seriously federal prosecutors view the allegations.

Daniel C. Richman, a former federal prosecutor who is now a professor at Fordham University School of Law, said that when plea negotiations fail, federal prosecutors nearly always seek an indictment.

Mr. Richman was not referring specifically to Mr. Kerik’s case.

An indictment would be a setback for the presidential campaign of Mr. Giuliani, who supported Mr. Kerik in his failed bid to become the nation’s Homeland Security director in 2004. Mr. Kerik was chosen by President Bush for the post, but withdrew, citing his failure to pay taxes on an illegal immigrant whom he had hired as his nanny.

Rebekah Carmichael, a spokeswoman for the United States attorney in Manhattan, Michael J. Garcia, declined to comment on the negotiations, which were first reported last night by WNBC-TV.

Mr. Kerik’s conversations with Ms. Pirro erupted into public view last fall as she was running as the Republican candidate for state attorney general. She said the devices were never planted and she accused the investigators of political motivations. But her campaign never regained its footing and she lost the election to Andrew M. Cuomo.

A lawyer who represented Ms. Pirro at the time, Paul Shechtman, did not return a call seeking comment.

Kyle B. Watters, a lawyer for one of the contractors who performed work on Mr. Kerik’s apartment, Timothy Woods, said that Mr. Woods had received a federal subpoena seeking records and testimony relating to his work on the home.

I can understand that perhaps Mr. Kerik doesn’t want to do time and plead to a felony and is willing to wait it out. Perhaps he may be actually hoping that this pesky Republican U.S. Attorney is replaced by a different Republican who is not pesky, and a non-political appointee by the Whitehouse and the Justice Department, so he can get a better deal.

I’m just saying: hope springs eternal!