By Jasper Ward
(Reuters) -Bernard Kerik, who was hailed for his role in leading the New York City Police Department during the September 11, 2001, attacks but later went to prison for tax evasion, died on Thursday at the age of 69.
His death followed a private battle with illness, FBI Director Kash Patel said.
During Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s administration, he spent two years as the city’s commissioner of the Department of Corrections starting in 1998 before being appointed police commissioner in 2000.
He oversaw the response, rescue, recovery during the September 11 attacks before leaving the NYPD in December 2001.
Kerik was later nominated by President George W. Bush to lead the Department of Homeland Security during the early stages of the United States’ War on Terror.
“Bernie Kerik understands the duties that came to America on September the 11th. The resolve he felt that morning will guide him every day on his job,” Bush said in 2004.
The nomination was short-lived as Kerik withdrew from consideration days after. His employment of an undocumented migrant as a nanny was later stated as the reason for his withdrawal.
In 2007, he was charged with lying to White House officials and with tax evasion. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison.
He was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2020.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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