Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday, he considers Bernie Kerik to not only be his ex-police commissioner but a "great man" and one of his "best friends," and he is glad President Donald Trump decided to pardon him.
"He's a man that I survived Sept. 11 with," Giuliani, now Trump's personal lawyer, told Newsmax TV's "Newsmax Now" host John Bachman. "The man is a rock, and not only that, he's a very brave man."
He noted Kerik also volunteered to serve in Iraq.
"I used to call him up in Iraq and see how things were going, and I could hear machine guns in the background," Giuliani said.
Kerik pleaded guilty in 2009 to eight federal charges related to tax fraud and false statements and was sentenced to four years in federal prison.
"He made a mistake and he paid for it," Giuliani said. "He probably paid a lot more for it than he should have because of political reasons, but he did, and it's a long time ago now."
Kerik has turned his experience around and has been working in criminal justice reform, Giuliani noted, and is "extraordinarily talented," having written several books.
Kerik also had no prior convictions, Giuliani said, and performed "exemplary service" to the United States, the city of New York, and the state of New Jersey.
He also commented on Trump's granting clemency to financier Michael Milken, who he has gotten to know over the past 20 years, mostly in dealing with raising money for prostate cancer causes, as they both had suffered from it.
"I consider him a friend, and someone who turned his life around . . . I think he's actually waited way too long for a pardon," Giuliani said.
Milken, 73, once nicknamed Wall Street's "junk bond king" was indicted in 1989 in an insider trading probe. After pleading guilty to securities violations, he paid $1.1 billion and served about two years in prison.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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