The Giuliani Papers

New Informant on Kerik and Giuliani

A new informant has surfaced with evidence against Kerik and Giuliani. Lawrence Ray was one of Kerik's pals during the late 90s and 2000, involved with Kerik's mob-related schemes.

Ray was one of Kerik's closest friends and the best man at his 1998 wedding. As Kerik was rising to become New York's police commissioner, Ray was in touch with him regularly -- lending him money, discussing possible business opportunities, and using Ray's contacts in Russia to arrange a meeting for Giuliani with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Much has changed since then. Giuliani is now a leading Republican presidential candidate. Kerik has pleaded guilty to state ethics charges and is under federal indictment. And Ray, a convicted felon now in prison on a parole violation, has turned on his former friend. He has provided to state and federal authorities half a dozen boxes of e-mails, memos, faxes, financial statements, photographs and other materials about Kerik's alleged wrongdoing.

That evidence, reviewed by The Washington Post, shows that Kerik brought Ray into contact with Giuliani on a handful of occasions documented in photos and that he invoked Giuliani's name in connection with a New Jersey construction company with alleged mob ties that is now at the heart of the criminal cases.

Giuliani's Other Judith

Frank Rich on the threat Judith Regan might pose to the Giuliani campaign:

...how quickly and stupidly we forgot about the other Judith in the Rudy orbit. That would be Judith Regan, who disappeared last December after she was unceremoniously fired from Rupert Murdoch’s publishing house, HarperCollins. Last week Ms. Regan came roaring back into the fray, a silver bullet aimed squarely at the heart of the Giuliani campaign.

Ms. Regan filed a $100 million lawsuit against her former employer, claiming she was unjustly made a scapegoat for the O. J. Simpson “If I Did It” fiasco that (briefly) embarrassed Mr. Murdoch and his News Corporation. But for those of us not caught up in the Simpson circus, what’s most riveting about the suit are two at best tangential sentences in its 70 pages: “In fact, a senior executive in the News Corporation organization told Regan that he believed she had information about Kerik that, if disclosed, would harm Giuliani’s presidential campaign. This executive advised Regan to lie to, and to withhold information from, investigators concerning Kerik.”

Time Magazine on Kerik

This could have been written a year ago if "journalists" acted like reporters. Michael Duffy in Time describes the real issue in the Kerik mess:

It is worth remembering that choosing a police chief was a mission-critical task for a mayor of New York City. The call was the most important Giuliani had to make. And so the choice of Kerik and the relationship between the two men raise legitimate questions about how Giuliani would perform as commander in chief: Does he choose his team members for their competence or for their obedience? Does he prize loyalty at the expense of ethics? Or does he now see in his relationship with Kerik clear lessons about how he rewarded and promoted those around him? For Giuliani, who is campaigning on the strength of his claim that he is a master at homeland security, Kerik is at best a question mark.

Loyalty isn't just any virtue for Giuliani; in his memoirs he called it "the vital virtue." That's an interesting plug from a man who has been married three times and informed one of his ex-wives that their marriage was over at a press conference. Loyalty, an attractive virtue in friendship, is an alarming one in politics, when faithful cronies are promoted in public service simply because they show fealty to the boss. 'Twas ever thus, of course. But with the ghosts of Alberto Gonzales and Harriet Miers still rattling around loudly in Washington, Americans have learned what can happen when a President places too much faith in those who have served him — and only him — for years, and then puts them in pivotal positions of law enforcement.

Kerik: December 9, 2004

At the end of 2004 the disaster in Iraq that should have upended a president was shoved into the face of the American people by Bush's nomination of Bernard Kerik for the head of homeland security.

The nomination was immediately seen as emblematic of both corruption and incompetence.

Sidney Blumenthal's essay in Salon told the tale:

Dec 9, 2004 | In the legend of the war on terrorism, Bernard Kerik, with his trademark shaved head, bristling mustache and black belt in karate, occupies a special place as rough-and-ready hero. Having risen from military policeman to narcotics detective to New York police commissioner, he finds himself on the fateful Sept. 11, 2001, shoulder to shoulder with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. As the towers crumble the mayor confides in his buddy, as Giuliani recalled in his speech to the Republican National Convention: "Bernie, thank God George Bush is president." After the invasion of Iraq, Bush assigns Kerik to train the new Iraqi security forces. Mission accomplished, he returns to Giuliani Partners LLC and becomes motivational speaker to captains of industry, his net worth skyrocketing into the millions of dollars. One of his most notable aphorisms: "Political criticism is our enemies' best friend."

Kerik: December 4, 2004

It took a nanosecond for the problems with Kerik to be made public after Bush nominated him for head of homeland security.

The Washington Post provided a very mixed profile of the nominee, without even getting into any allegations of tax fraud and bribery:

If former mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani was a symbol of New York's resilience after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Kerik, 49, became his shadow and trusted right-hand man. A few years earlier, as city corrections commissioner, he fought gang violence and brought order to the toughest cellblocks.

But Kerik's track record combating terrorism and working on the national stage is more spotty. Appointed by President Bush to train a new Iraqi police force in 2003, Kerik came under criticism for inadequate screening of recruits as U.S. authorities rushed to deploy the force. It has been plagued by desertions and by allegations that insurgents have infiltrated theranks.

Kerik quit four months into his six-month tenure in Iraq, telling New York reporters later that he needed a vacation.

A prominent Republican member of the Sept. 11 commission, former Navy secretary John F. Lehman, sharply criticized Kerik and former fire commissioner Thomas Van Essen for failures of leadership during the terrorist attacks, saying that rivalry between the departments hampered rescue efforts. The command and control of their departments, Lehman said, were "not worthy of the Boy Scouts." Kerik heatedly disputed the charge.

The commission's final report contained much muted criticism of the two departments and framed the overarching question this way: "Whether the lack of coordination between the FDNY and the NYPD had a catastrophic effect is a subject of controversy."

So how did the administration not know about Kerik? How did Giuliani not know about Kerik?

The answer is: They did, but they did not care.

Kerik fit the part. And they knew that if Kerik self-destructed it didn't matter. Americans don't pay attention to stuff like that. Rudy could still lead the Republican field for president.

Kerik, Gonzales and Bush

Alberto Gonzales as White House counsel was in charge of vetting Bernard Kerik for head of Homeland Security. Despite many red flags raised by White House aides and FBI and DOJ investigators, the vetting process was truncated and the nomination rushed.

The Washington Post reported on this flawed process last April. It begs many questions that are not answered.

When former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani urged President Bush to make Bernard B. Kerik the next secretary of homeland security, White House aides knew Kerik as the take-charge top cop from Sept. 11, 2001. But it did not take them long to compile an extensive dossier of damaging information about the would-be Cabinet officer.

They learned about questionable financial deals, an ethics violation, allegations of mismanagement and a top deputy prosecuted for corruption. Most disturbing, according to people close to the process, was Kerik's friendship with a businessman who was linked to organized crime. The businessman had told federal authorities that Kerik received gifts, including $165,000 in apartment renovations, from a New Jersey family with alleged Mafia ties.

Alarmed about the raft of allegations, several White House aides tried to raise red flags. But the normal investigation process was short-circuited, the sources said. Bush's top lawyer, Alberto R. Gonzales, took charge of the vetting, repeatedly grilling Kerik about the issues that had been raised. In the end, despite the concerns, the White House moved forward with his nomination -- only to have it collapse a week later.

The selection of Kerik in December 2004 for one of the most sensitive posts in government became an acute but brief embarrassment for Bush at the start of his second term. More than two years later, it has reemerged as part of a federal criminal investigation of Kerik that raises questions about the decisions made by the president, the Republican front-runner to replace him and the embattled attorney general.

A reconstruction of the failed nomination, assembled through interviews with key players, provides new details and a fuller account of the episode -- how Giuliani put forward a flawed candidate for high office, how Bush rushed the usual process in his eagerness to install a political ally and how Gonzales, as White House counsel, failed to stop the nomination despite the many warning signs. "The vetting process clearly broke down," said a senior White House official. "This should not happen."

One of the questions is what role did Giuliani Partners, Kerik's employer at the time, have in the vetting process and how much did they know that they did not report.

As with every nominee, Kerik was given detailed financial disclosure and personal history questionnaires to fill out, all intended to unearth anything that might prove embarrassing in a confirmation hearing. Giuliani's firm assisted in filling out the forms, according to a source familiar with the situation, and the papers are now an issue in the federal criminal investigation. Kerik, his attorney and Giuliani Partners spokeswoman Sunny Mindel declined to comment.

The role of Giuliani Partners in this matter has never been fully explained. Although it is very difficult to believe that a firm founded on its security credentials did not know what the FBI and DOJ knew about one of its founding partners.

The Kerik Resume of Corruption

From TPM...

From yesterday's indictment:

- Bribery. Accepted $255,000 worth of renovations to his apartment in an upscale section of the Bronx from a mob-connected construction company, Interstate Industrial Corporation, that sought his help in winning city contracts. Kerik was Commissioner of the New York City Department of Corrections at the time. He already admitted to charges from city prosecutors that the payments constituted an illegal gift. -- Tax fraud. Kerik failed to report $236,269 in rent for his Upper East Side apartment where he lived from December 2001 to December 2003 with his family. One of the city's biggest real estate developers, Steve Witkoff, paid the $9,650 in monthly rent. Kerik asked for Witkoff's help with the apartment while he was still police commissioner of NYC, and the real estate mogul made the payments because the two "anticipated doing business in the future."

-- More tax fraud. Kerik also failed to disclose $20,000 in consulting fees from a computer software company and $75,953 in royalties for writing his autobiography.

-- Even more tax fraud. Kerik failed to report wages paid to his nanny (more about that below), claimed $80,000 in phony charitable contributions, and falsely claimed a home office deduction for a home he had not moved into yet.

-- False statements. Lied on application for head of Department of Homeland Security about the nanny, payments from the construction company, and other things he preferred to keep quiet.

From before Kerik's time in city government:

-- Deported from Saudi Arabia. In 1982, Kerik was hired to provide security for a Saudi Arabian hospital. Nine former hospital employees have argued that Kerik acted as enforcer for his employer, Nizar Feteih, who used the security team to keep an eye on a handful of female hospital employees, as well as the men with whom they were in contact. Kerik is accused of inappropriate surveillance, including wiretapping staff members.
Kerik declared one doctor disliked by Feteih as drunk and had him arrested (and later deported) under Saudi law. The outrage prompted an investigation by the Ministry of Health, which determined that many allegations of security abuse by Kerik were accurate. Kerik was fired over the incident and deported.

From before he was in government:

-- Deported from Saudi Arabia. In 1982, Kerik was hired to provide security for a Saudi Arabian hospital. Nine former hospital employees have argued that Kerik acted as enforcer for his employer, Nizar Feteih, who used the security team to keep an eye on a handful of female hospital employees, as well as the men with whom they were in contact. Kerik is accused of inappropriate surveillance, including wiretapping staff members.

Kerik declared one doctor disliked by Feteih as drunk and had him arrested (and later deported) under Saudi law. The outrage prompted an investigation by the Ministry of Health, which determined that many allegations of security abuse by Kerik were accurate. Kerik was fired over the incident and deported.

And his time on the NYC payroll:

It's too long...use the link.

Giuliani and Kerik: The Core Issue

The Kerik indictment goes to the heart of the Giuliani candidacy or, at least, it should.

Greg Sargent at TPM hits that nail on the head:

The Kerik indictment isn't merely news because it calls into question Rudy's judgment or vetting skills on one appointment or even on his recommending him for DHS. Rather, its real importance lies in the fact that it undercuts the core rationale of his entire candidacy. It perfectly captures the fraudulent nature of Rudy's entire Presidential quest.

Rudy's argument to voters is simple: He's the candidate best equipped to protect us from what he likes to call the "terrorists' war on us." To justify this he likes to say that as Mayor he shouldered the burden of maintaining the "safety and security of 8 million people," and that as Mayor of New York on 9/11 he alone understands just how frightful the terrorist menace really is and hence would be most effective in countering it. This is Rudy's central message: I alone am the best equipped to keep the country safe from Islamofascisterror.

It hardly needs to be pointed out that the post of Homeland Security chief is kind of important when it comes to doing this. Despite this, Rudy is the primary reason that a cartoonish joke like Kerik was ever considered for the all-important post of defending the nation in the first place. Remember, Rudy privately vouched for Kerik to Bush. If somehow Kerik's various shenanigans and misdeeds hadn't come to light in time, it's not inconceivable that he could have ended up as DHS chief, with potentially catastrophic results that would have been primarily Rudy's fault. Now Rudy is telling us he's the guy to keep us safe?

It is up to the American people to bring some critical intelligence to this candidate. Will they?

More on the Dangers of Loyalty Rudy Style

Steve Benen comments:

Giuliani isn’t looking out for his friends out of some sense of nobility; he’s doing so because he wants yes-men who will put Team Giuliani above the interests of everyone else.

Kerik Web Site Highlights Nomination He Has Been Indicted for Lying About

Bernard Kerik is raising money on a web site that spotlights one of the aspects of his career that he is being indicted for, his nomination by George W. Bush to head the Dept. of Homeland Security. One of the counts of yesterday's indictment is that he lied to the White House in trying to win that nomination.

The section of the site About Bernard Kerik begins:

On December 3, 2004, Bernard B. Kerik, the Chairman of The Kerik Group, LLC, was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as the second Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Kerik’s qualifications for the post span his entire career, but most recently he served as Iraq’s interim Minister of Interior and the Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Presidential Envoy to Iraq’s Coalition Provisional Authority. Arriving in Baghdad just days after coalition forces invaded, Mr. Kerik was responsible for beginning the reconstitution and re-instatement of Iraq’s interior ministry including the national police service and borders enforcement.

Kerik suddenly left Iraq without any explanation three months into what was supposed to be a six month assignment.