Posted on 02/18/2010 2:18:54 PM PST by kcvl
Bernard B. Kerik, a former New York police commissioner who rose to national prominence, was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to eight felony charges, including tax fraud and lying to White House officials.
Under the terms of a plea agreement reached in November on the eve of his trial, the prosecution and the defense recommended that Judge Stephen C. Robinson sentence Mr. Kerik to 27 to 33 months in prison. But the judge departed from the sentencing recommendations, giving Mr. Kerik a longer sentence.
“I think it’s fair to say that with great power comes great responsibility and great consequences,” Judge Robinson said. “I think the damage caused by Mr. Kerik is in some ways immeasurable.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Don't you love it when "respected" jurists quote Spiderman?
Very strange business. This guy had everything going for him, was on the fast track to success, and blew it all for some relatively minor bits of corruption. He should have known that people with Republican associations aren’t allowed to do that.
Stan Lee took that from FDR’s Jefferson Day Dinner speech.
Yeah, but do you think he knows that ;)
My thoughts too. I read his autobiography; he has a compelling life story and did much good during his life. He would have made a FAR better Homeland Security Secretary than Janitwit Napolitano.
It was far more than that. This guy was the nominee to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and when the Bush administration learned of his sordid background (including the misleading information he had provided during his background check) they rightfully pursued a “vindictive” prosecution against him. Make no mistake about it . . . this was a case of the Executive Branch sending a message to potential nominees and the morons (i.e., Rudy Giuliani) who promote them for this type of position.
Dubya should’ve pardoned him.
Absolutely. I thought about Bernie when I heard that the Christmas bomber had rights and a lawyer.
He was prosecuted for lying to the White House in his disclosure forms for his DHS background check.
“I think it’s fair to say that with great power comes great responsibility and great consequences,” Judge Robinson said.
LOL
This, imo, is when prosecutors are out of line as they were in the Martha Stewart case:
Prosecutors had called for Judge Robinson to make an example out of Mr. Kerik, and to punish him for his “egotism and hubris.”
Stewart's prosecutors wanted her nailed as "an example." They are operating outside of the law when they do this, purportedly for purposes of moralism. Typical liberals, in my view.
When a high school dropout makes a leap from a police detective serving as New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani's personal driver to the New York City police commissioner over the course of only six years, you have to wonder what the guy's real story is.
It's also worth noting that Kerik served as the Interim Minister of the Interior of Iraq under the provisional government for a period of four months in 2003 -- and left under something of a cloud because nobody seems to know exactly what role he played there.
I've tried connecting the dots on this one . . . and when I factor Rudy Giuliani's disappearance from the political scene into the mix, I have to conclude that there is a lot of dirt underneath the surface that hasn't even been exposed yet.
It was a liberal witch hunt from the instant he was nominated. They didn’t give a damn about him until that moment, because all of them are guilty of far worse. I just think that when you put someone out there in the line of fire, you support them and not let the vultures peck them to pieces.
I have Paul Bremer’s book about his year in Iraq, may be able to find something re Kerik in there.
What dirt do you suspect? I think Kerik went a bit astray, abused power perhaps but do not ascribe sinister motivations, nor do I believe Giuliani is implicated.
Giuliani has not disappeared from the political scene. He has been mentioned as a possible candidate for Governor of New York.
If this guy were a black Democrat from Chicago with a Muslim-sounding name, he would be Barack Hussein Obama.
P.S. Giuliani's political career is over -- count on it.
Kerik is a 9/11 hero and his tax crimes were mild compared to those of the current repeat tax cheats in 0’s cabinet. As for lying to a President, we now have a compulsively lying president who is destroying our country! This is a travesty.
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