ou had to figure with as much work Newsmax has put in to rehabilitating the reputation of Bernard Kerik that it would try to figure out a way to spin the revocation of Kerik’s bail on the corruption charges he faces.
We get exactly that in an Oct. 22 article by John Noble playing up Geraldo Rivera’s assertion that Kerik “is a ‘patriot’ whose civil rights, including the right to a fair trial, are being trampled upon by an overzealous federal prosecutor and federal judge.” (It was only a few months ago that Newsmax was happily repeating Lou Dobbs’ description of Rivera as “intellectually challenged.”)
Noble is in full protection mode on Kerik, even blaming the reporter to whom a Kerik associate leaked confidential court papers for reporting the leak to prosecutors:
The brouhaha that landed Kerik in prison began in September, when one of his attorneys, Anthony Modafferi, who headed up Kerik’s legal defense fund and advised him on an unpaid basis, sent an email to reporter Jerry Seper at The Washington Times.
Though the email was clearly marked confidential, Seper, according to a letter from the federal prosecutor, forwarded the verbatim email he received from Modafferi to the New York City Department of Investigation.
The city department, in turn, turned over the email to the federal prosecutor, suggesting it detailed privileged information that should not have been released publicly.
Is Noble really saying that Seper should not have reported the violation that Modafferi’s apparently illegal release of court-sealed information represents? We thought the boys at Newsmax were all law-and-order types.
Noble goes on to editorialize that Kerik faces “a laundry list of charges, many trivial,” which are based on “flimsy evidence.” As we’ve detailed, Newsmax has a long history of whitewashing the corruption charges against Kerik, even doing so in a Newsmax magazine piece.
Is Kerik really worth this much rehabilitation effort, considering the magnitude of the charges against him and his latest antics? Newsmax apparently thinks so.