New York City’s former top cop, Bernard Kerik, one of seven individuals Tuesday who received a pardon or commutation from President Trump, says he had already given up on getting pardoned after President Barack Obama denied his request.
“You know what? I wasn’t too optimistic. You know? I initially submitted the pardon under President Obama,” Kerik told the Washington Examiner.
Kerik, a onetime New York police chief, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2010 after pleading guilty to eight felony charges related to tax fraud and making false statements to government officials.
He led the New York City Police Department during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and wrote about his law enforcement background as well as his incarceration in his book From Jailer to Jailed: My Journey from Corrections and Police Commissioner to Inmate #84888-054.
His experiences led him to become a vocal advocate of criminal justice reform consulted by the Obama administration.
“I figured I had a pretty good shot at the time because I was working with the Obama administration on criminal justice reform. I’d been to the White House several times. I actually worked with the House Democratic Judiciary,” Kerik said.
“I testified for them and briefed for them on criminal justice issues, so I thought I had a pretty good shot until Obama left, and he wound up commuting like 250 drug guys, a number of them with violence and guns. A fifth of his pardons were for violent crime guys,” Kerik said, referring to Army soldier Bowe Bergdahl, former Army soldier Chelsea Manning, and Oscar Lopez Rivera, a member of Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional Puertorriquena, a Marxist-Leninist terrorist group advocating Puerto Rican independence.
“So I thought my record had a good shot for consideration, and it just went down the tubes,” Kerik said. “So you know — I wasn’t too optimistic about the plan.”
Kerik said he was surprised when the president called to reveal he’d issued him a pardon.
“I was in Florida. I was working, sitting at my computer. The president called me. My phone rang. I answered the phone. Somebody identified themselves as working in the White House and to stand by for the president of the United States. They put me on hold, and the phone buzzed twice, and the president picked up,” Kerik recalled.
“We said hi. And he said, ‘Bernie, listen, as I’m speaking to you, I’m signing a presidential pardon on your behalf, and this will expunge your record — give you the opportunity to move on with your life.’ I said, ‘thank you.’”
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he advocated for pardoning not only Kerik but also pardoning financier and philanthropist Michael Milken, who was convicted of violating U.S. securities laws in 1989.
Six years prior to his conviction, Kerik was appointed by President George W. Bush to head up the Department of Homeland Security, but he withdrew after the immigration status of a former household employee surfaced.
The former NYPD commissioner said the pardon will allow him more opportunities that were previously closed off to him.
“Once you’re convicted, your civil and constitutional rights are substantially reduced, and … there’s about 40,000 collateral consequences nationwide that have negative impact on a convicted felon,” he said.
“So there’s all these things that hold you up. I’ve been offered and considered for government consulting positions. But I couldn’t get those positions because of the felony,” Kerik explained. “I couldn’t be cleared for a clearance because of the felony.”
Kerik lamented, “We have guys in prison, and we teach them how to be barbers … but in certain states, when they get out of prison, they can’t even get a barber’s license because it’s regulated by the government, and it’s not allowed.”
