January 6 committee meets with former NYC police commissioner Bernard Kerik for eight hours

By Paula Reid and Annie Grayer, CNN

Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, met with the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol Hill insurrection for eight hours Thursday.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and the panel’s chairman, said the interview began Thursday morning.

Kerik appeared virtually for the voluntary interview along with his lawyer Tim Parlatore, and committee staffers asked all the questions, though some committee members were in attendance for at least part of the hearing.

Kerik worked alongside his longtime friend Rudy Giuliani, a former attorney for former President Donald Trump, in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election to find any evidence of voter fraud that would swing it for Trump. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the election.

A source familiar with the interview told CNN that Kerik had been asked repeatedly about Giuliani and he had defended the former New York mayor as legitimately believing there was at least “probable cause” of voter fraud that should be investigated and not a “big lie.”

Kerik had previously provided documents to the committee and went through them during his testimony.

The committee also asked about the so-called Willard War Room, which Kerik told lawmakers had been set up after they had to decamp from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel following a Covid-19 outbreak among the group investigating voter fraud.

This story and headline have been updated with additional information Thursday.

The-CNN-Wire
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