High-profile MAGA identities have paid tribute to Bernie Kerik, the police chief who led “New York’s Finest” through 9/11 only to end up in jail for tax fraud.
Kerik, who was given a presidential pardon in 2020, died aged 69 on Thursday in New York, where he had been hospitalized with cardiac problems.
Kerik spent 16 months as NYPD commissioner after being appointed by New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who became a close friend after Kerik served as his bodyguard during Giuliani’s 1993 mayoral campaign.
Kerik served three years in prison from 2010 after pleading guilty to tax fraud and making false statements. But he received a pardon from then-President Trump in 2020 and went on to help Trump as he sought to overturn his election defeat against Joe Biden.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced the news on his X account on Thursday. “Today, we mourn the loss of Bernard B. Kerik, a warrior, a patriot, and one of the most courageous public servants this country has ever known,” Patel wrote. “Bernie passed away tragically on May 29, 2025, after a private battle with illness.”
Heartbroken about the loss of our dear friend Bernie Kerik. Prayers to Bernie’s family and many friends. pic.twitter.com/FpToelpTCR
— Pam Bondi (@PamBondi) May 30, 2025
Monica Crowley, chief of protocol at the State Department, hailed Kerik as “a quintessential New Yorker, true patriot and an American hero.”
Andrew Giuliani, son of Rudy, said: “New York lost one of our greatest crime fighters this evening. Commissioner Bernard Kerik set the standard, turning the most dangerous correctional systems in the world into the gold standard. Then, as Police Commissioner, Bernie led from the front on that fateful September 11th day.”
He added: “Personally, I will always remember Bernie through the eyes of my seven year old self, as one of the toughest cops a boy could imagine. Rest in peace my friend, you rock, you great warrior!”
But the most emotional tribute came from Rudy Giuliani himself. “We’ve been together since the beginning. He’s like my brother,” Giuliani said through tears on his streaming show on Thursday. “I was a better man for having known Bernie. I certainly was a braver and stronger man.”
Giuliani also used his X account to pay his respects to Kerik. “He was a decorated police officer, Corrections commissioner and NYC police commissioner during the worst terrorist attack on American soil,” Giuliani wrote.
“Bernie oversaw the biggest evacuation of a city during this time. His work in security has benefited many communities. My sympathies to his wife Hala, his son Joe and his two daughters Celine and Angelina, whom are my goddaughters.”
Trump administration adviser Kari Lake wrote on X “Bernie was a true patriot for decades! Just like President Trump, he had a YUGE love for America, his family, and New York City. He LOVED the MAGA Movement BEFORE it even had a name ”
After his stint as NYPD commissioner, Kerik went on to serve as interior minister of Iraq under the provisional coalition authority after the 2003 invasion.
In 2004 he was named by President George W Bush to lead the Department of Homeland Security, but had to withdraw his name after admitting to having employed an undocumented migrant, sparking a series of investigations into his finances.
In 2009 Kerik pleaded guilty to eight felony charges and served three years in federal prison. In the weeks after the 2020 election, Kerik and Giuliani worked together with Trump’s legal team to investigate claims of voter fraud. Kerik turned over thousands of pages of records to the federal investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Kerik had had his conviction wiped by Trump the previous February. “I started crying,” Kerik said at the time. Kerik was a frequent guest to the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
I am heartbroken over the loss of my dear friend Bernie Kerik. He was a decorated police officer, Corrections commissioner and NYC police commissioner during the worst terrorist attack on American soil. Bernie oversaw the biggest evacuation of a city during this time. His work in… pic.twitter.com/NeFDm7Dj1t
— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) May 30, 2025
The post MAGA Mourns Death of 9/11 Police Chief Bernie Kerik at 69 appeared first on The Daily Beast.
