Kerik wants public deposition to House Jan. 6 committee

Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik is demanding a deposition in public after being subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 committee.

Mr. Kerik, who worked with Trump lawyer and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to investigate allegations of voter fraud following the 2020 presidential election, said he wants “the American people to hear what really happened.”

“I’m not going to go into a private deposition,” Mr. Kerik told New York Daily News on Friday.

Mr. Kerik said he doesn’t trust the Democrat-run committee, which Republicans insist is a partisan effort to smear former President Donald Trump and the GOP.

The committee is investigating the attack on the Capitol by pro-Trump supporters last year to stop Congress certifying President Biden’s election victory. The panel issued a subpoena last month for Mr. Kerik to turn over documents and appear for a deposition.

The panel said Mr. Kerik was involved in meetings at the Willard Hotel in Washington where Trump officials discussed strategies to overturn the election results. The lawmakers said Mr. Kerik also paid for rooms in other hotels “that served as election-related command centers.”

The committee also accused Mr. Kerik of working with Mr. Giuliani to “promote baseless litigation and “Stop the Steal” efforts.”

Mr. Kerik’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, said in a letter to the committee on Thursday that his client had agreed to provide the documents and “to sit and answer all appropriate questions.”

But on Friday, Mr. Kerik told the Daily News that he worries that the committee will misconstrue his testimony to the public.

The committee has held several private depositions of former Trump advisers and rally organizers, and the committee members have threatened to play hardball with witnesses who don’t cooperate.

The committee thus far recommended contempt of Congress charges for three witnesses who failed to appear or refused to answer questions during depositions.

President Trump pardoned Mr. Kerik in 2020 of felony tax fraud charges and for lying to White House officials. Mr. Kerik plead guilty to the charges and was sentenced to prison in 2010.

Mr. Kerik was released from prison in 2013 after serving three years of a four-year sentence.