Ethics Newsline®

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.
Former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, previously nominated to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has pleaded not guilty to 16 felony charges unsealed last week.

Kerik, formerly in charge of 40,000 police officers, is accused of shaking down a company suspected of mob ties, accepting illicit payments, failing to report income, coercing witnesses, and lying to the White House when he was being considered to head the Department of Homeland Security, reports New York City radio station WNYC.

As Newsday notes, Kerik had built a national reputation on September 11, 2001, when he led the police department’s response to the terror attacks on the World Trade Center, gaining a high profile that nearly brought him one of the nation’s top federal law-enforcement positions.

Kerik’s nomination unraveled as various allegations against him surfaced, and the issue has gained new life because his mentor, Rudy Giuliani, who also nominated him for the Homeland Security post, now is running for president.

The Washington Post reports that Giuliani moved into the crosshairs of his opponents immediately after the indictments were unsealed. Fellow GOP contender Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) criticized Kerik’s performance as a contractor in Iraq.

The Giuliani camp fired back immediately, reports the Post, invoking McCain’s involvement in the Keating 5 scandal in the 1980s.

GOP contender Mitt Romney, campaigning in New Hampshire, avoided direct criticism of Giuliani, but had his aides issue a compendium of archived speeches and news articles in which Romney called for a higher ethical standard in Washington, the Boston Globe reports.