A federal judge on Monday ordered Bernie Kerik to turn over investigation records tied to a criminal case that sent him to the slammer five years ago – records the disgraced former NYPD commissioner had hoped to unseal and use in his bitter legal fight against celebrity lawyer Joe Tacopina.
Manhattan federal Judge Loretta Preska sided with the government, which has said there’s “no legal precedent” to lift a six-year-old protective order on records related to Kerik’s 2009 guilty plea to charges of tax fraud and lying to the White House while being vetted for the Homeland Security Secretary post.
“There is a public interest in enforcing confidentiality agreements, such as the protective order, because they encourage cooperation and communication between the government and third-party informants,” Preska wrote.
Kerik in January sued Tacopina — – who recently represented shamed Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez in a failed bid to get his Major League Baseball doping ban overturned – claiming the lawyer knowingly allowed Kerik to perjure himself in a Bronx guilty plea and also gave the feds privileged information to his then-client in 2007.
Kerik had claimed the unsealing of his criminal case’s records would offer insight in how Tacopina allegedly turned his back on him.
Tacopina – who vehemently denies Kerik’s allegations – has slapped his ex-client with a defamation suit, claiming the convicted felon and ex-top cop fed outrageous “lies” about him to the Daily News for a December “hit piece.”
Tacopina’s lawyer, Judd Burstein, told The Post, his client would’ve welcomed having the records unsealed because “it would’ve shown even more evidence of Mr. Kerik’s allergy to the truth.”
The judge in her opinion also sided with the feds by ripping Kerik and his lawyers for not returning the same investigation records they obtained years ago through discovery now that Kerik has served his time. She ordered the boxes of records to be returned in immediately.
Kerik’s lawyer, Raymond Mansolillo, said he would file legal papers asking Preska to reconsider her ruling. He declined to discuss what information in the sealed records Kerik hopes to use against Tacopina.
Kerik served three years in prison before being released in 2012.