Via email, Julia reminds the Right’s Field that evidence strongly suggests that Rudy Giuliani’s business partner Bernard Kerik never completed a required background check after he was picked by Giuliani to be New York City’s police commissioner. Kerik is proving to be a major blight on Giuliani’s past, as heis facing federal indictments for tax fraud and conspiracy to wiretap.
The agency said in a statement yesterday that it has been unable to find any evidence that Mr. Kerik had filled out a background form, as usually required, before his appointment to the post by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. Officials are also interviewing employees and searching for records that might explain why a body of uncomplimentary information the agency had learned about Mr. Kerik was apparently never considered by City Hall before his appointment in August 2000.
We recently found out that Giuliani had been briefed on Kerik’s connections to the mob in 2000 when Kerik was vetted for the police commissioner post. Kerik’s nomination proceeded with Giuliani’s knowledge of his shady past, a past that probably should have precluded him from the job of police commissioner. The absence of a formal vetting by the city suggests that proper due diligence was not done on Kerik.
At minimum the procedural lapses during the vetting of Kerik represents a failure of the Giuliani administration to operate in accordance to city standards. But at its worst this episode indicates that Giuliani wanted his man no matter what, even when he was read in on the full details of Kerik’s dirty past and was willing to hide Kerik’s dirt from the people of New York.
Technorati Tags: Bernard Kerik, Rudy Giuliani
6 Responses to “Kerik Skipped NYC Background Check”
yawn…..
let me know when you right something about mark rich, roger clinton, vince foster, gennifer flowers, paula jones, monica lewinsky, james mcdougal, susan mcdougal, larry patterson, roger perry, kathleen wiley, juanita broaddrick, craig livingstone, catherine cornelius, mark middleton, charlie trie, janes riady, john huang, sandy berger or any other of hillary and bill’s criminal buddies.
yawn….
Yikes! This story seems to have shades of the Great Gonzalez Jury Duty Strategy. Was Julie Annie playing Kerik’s Gonzalez? What was so damned important about making Kerik commissioner that a background check was waived.
I really think you can abandon the “procedural irregularity” line. Background checks don’t get missed. No background check, and you don’t get a building pass. Security wonks in government are funny about that.
Something to say?
yawn
Left by matt
April 2, 2007 at 11:21am