Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik wept when he took the stand in the perjury trial of two former associates on Monday, a detail that led both the New York Times’ and The Wall Street Journal’s coverage. But Kerik’s tears are nothing new. The tough-as-nails cop who led the NYPD during 9/11 and whom President George W. Bush nominated as secretary of homeland security before a history of corruption surfaced (he eventually pleaded guilty to eight felonies), has a habit of crying in public. On Monday, his tears accompanied his admission on the witness stand that he had accepted $225,000 in home renovations from two brothers, Frank and Peter DiTommaso, whom he’s accused of helping get a license for their business in spite of alleged mob ties. Kerik’s publisher and former lover Judith Regan once told NYPD Confidential author Len Levitt, “he cries on cue.” The record suggests she’s right.
- He cried on Oprah when she profiled him after the 2001 publication of his book, The Lost Son.
- He also cried on 60 Minutes when Mike Wallace was profiling him and his book.
- He cried with Rudolph Giuliani when he resigned from the former mayor’s consulting company in 2005, as his legal troubles increased.
- He cried a lot to New York’s Greg Horowitz during interviews for a 2005 feature about his downfall.
- He told Horowitz he cried when he turned down the Homeland Security job.
- He cried when he pleaded guilty to felony corruption in 2009.
- He cried in court on Monday when the DiTommaso brothers’ attorney asked him about his guilty plea.
