Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

A new investigation reveals that embattled U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales pushed through the highly questionable Secretary of Homeland Security nomination of Bernard Kerik (inset, left), the NYPD’s former top cop, despite a checkered past of ethics violations and links to a convicted New Jersey businessman with reported links to the DiTomasso organized crime family.

At the time Kerik was being considered for the Bush cabinet position, Gonzales was still working as White House Counsel. The Washington Post reports that “Gonzales, as White House counsel, failed to stop [Kerik’s] nomination despite the many warning signs. ‘The vetting process clearly broke down,’ said a senior White House official. ‘This should not happen.’ ”

Lawrence Ray, a New Jersey businessman who was indicted along with organized crime figures in 2000, told the Washington Post that he was the one who kept feeding information about Kerik’s questionable ties during the vetting process for the Homeland Security position. Ray was the best man at Kerik’s 1999 wedding.

One person who the Post says had inside knowledge of Ray’s criminal prosecution at the time he was considered for the DHS chief position was Julie Myers (inset). She was a federal prosecutor in the case against Ray and reputed members of the DiTomasso organized crime family when she worked for the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn at the time. When Kerik was being considered for a position as Secretary of Homeland Security, Myers had just started “working in the White House personnel office on the staffing of the Homeland Security and Justice departments.”

In 2001, Ray pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the Brooklyn federal indictment.

Ray says he was continually feeding information to the feds about Kerik:

“[telling] the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office as early as 1999, as he tried to stave off indictment, that he had incriminating information about Kerik. After his guilty plea in 2001, Ray said, he told the FBI that Kerik had agreed to help Interstate Industrial and its owners, the DiTomasso family, try to win city business despite their alleged ties with organized crime. At the time, Kerik solicited and received gifts from company sources, including $165,000 in renovations for his apartment.

“They knew 100 percent of it,” Ray said. “There was no way they didn’t. I was driving the ball on that.”

Despite red flags raised over Kerik’s DHS consideration by White House aides at the time, Gonzales led the vetting process, overlooking these red flags. Due to the need to keep candidates’ identities secret before their nomination, Gonzales’ White House Counsel office was in charge of vetting, leaving the FBI out of any necessary background investigation until the nomination would have actually been submitted.

The White Ethics Counsel at the time, Nanette Everson, was “kept on the sideline for the heavy-duty part of the vetting.” Who was the lawyer controlling Kerik’s push to the top for Pre. Bush? Alberto Gonzales.