Andrew C. McCarthy

For the American actor (born 1962), see Andrew McCarthy.

Andrew McCarthy
McCarthy reporting on the prosecution of Donald Trump in New York
Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
Personal details
Born	1958 or 1959 (age 65–66) The Bronx, U.S.
Political party	Republican[1]
Education	Columbia University (BA) New York Law School (JD)

Andrew C. McCarthy III (born 1958 or 1959)^[2] is an American lawyer and columnist for National Review. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.^[3][4] He led the 1995 terrorism prosecution against Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and eleven others. The defendants were convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and planning a series of attacks against New York City landmarks.^[5] He also contributed to the prosecutions of terrorists who bombed United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He resigned from the Justice Department in 2003.

During the presidency of Barack Obama, McCarthy characterized Obama as a radical and a socialist, and authored a book alleging that Obama was advancing a "Sharia Agenda". He authored another book calling for Obama's impeachment. He defended false claims that the Affordable Care Act would lead to "death panels", and promoted a conspiracy theory that Bill Ayers, co-founder of the militant radical left-wing organization Weather Underground, had authored Obama's autobiography Dreams from My Father. He is a Republican.^[6][7]

Early life and career

McCarthy is the oldest of six children. His father died when he was 13.^[8] He graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx borough of New York City, and Columbia College.^[8][9] After graduating from Columbia, McCarthy became a Deputy United States Marshal in the Federal Witness Protection Program.^[8] While working at the US Marshal's Office, he studied law at New York Law School.^[9] He later joined the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York as a paralegal.^[8]

In 1986, he was hired as a prosecutor at the Southern District and worked directly for then US Attorney for the district, Rudy Giuliani.^[8][10] In 1995, McCarthy led the successful prosecution of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and eleven others for planning and carrying out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the planning of a series of further attacks against New York City landmarks.^[5] McCarthy led the satellite office of the Southern District, in White Plains, New York, for five years, where he investigated the 1998 bombings of United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.^[9]

After the September 11th attacks in 2001, McCarthy's became a key member of a command team of prosecutors tasked with drafting search warrants and "connecting dots" in the ensuing investigations. He left the prosecutor's office in 2003.^[8]

McCarthy is currently a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, serving as the director of the FDD's Center for Law and Counterterrorism. He has served as an attorney for Rudy Giuliani, and is also an opinion columnist for National Review and Commentary. He has also been a regular contributor to Fox News.^[11] He has also served as an adjunct professor at New York Law School and Fordham University School of Law.^[8][9]

Views

Prosecution of terrorism

McCarthy was a key member of the terrorism prosecution team after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Starting in the late 1990s, however, he became a vocal skeptic of the use the Southern District of New York's law enforcement infrastructure as the primary method of countering terrorism, stating: “We've become headquarters for counterterrorism in the United States.... Not the CIA. Not anyplace in Washington. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. From the country’s perspective, it’s not a good thing.” A prosecutor's job, he added, “is not the national security of the United States.”^[8]

He criticized the Obama administration for trying suspected terrorists in civilian courts.^[8]

Islam

McCarthy has written several books about the perceived threat from Islam, and has worked with anti-Muslim organizations such as the Center for Security Policy and the David Horowitz Freedom Center.^[12] He has been considered as a more moderate part of the counter-jihad movement as he distinguishes between Islam and Islamism.^[13]

Support for Rudy Giuliani

McCarthy has known Rudy Giuliani since at least as early as 1986, when he began his career under Giuliani at the Southern District of New York.^[8] In February 2007, McCarthy authored an endorsement for the fledgling candidacy of Rudy Giuliani during the 2008 presidential election campaign in the National Review.^[10] McCarthy also served as Giuliani's attorney during the campaign.^{[citation needed]}

Barack Obama

During the 2008 presidential election campaign, McCarthy wrote a number of posts on the National Review's Corner blog stating that he thought that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was not serious about protecting United States national security against threats from Islamic extremism and elsewhere, and that Obama had a number of troubling ties and associations with leftist radicals. McCarthy promoted the conspiracy theory that Bill Ayers, co-founder of the militant radical left-wing organization Weather Underground, had authored Obama's autobiography Dreams from My Father.^{[7][14][15][16]} McCarthy reviewed the article as "thorough, thoughtful, and alarming".^[6][17] McCarthy argued in October 2008, "that the issue of Obama's personal radicalism, including his collaboration with radical, America-hating Leftists, should have been disqualifying."^[18][19] He claimed that Obama was engaged in "bottom-up socialism."^{[20][21][22][23]}

McCarthy defended Sarah Palin's false claim that Obama's health care reform, the Affordable Care Act, would lead to the creation of "death panels."^[20][24] In May 2009, McCarthy provided details of a letter declining an invitation from Attorney General Eric Holder for a round-table meeting with President Barack Obama concerning the status of people detained in the War on Terror. McCarthy noted his dissension with the administration in their policies regarding the detainees.^[25] On December 5, 2009 he came out publicly against prosecuting Islamic terrorists in civil courts rather than military tribunals, saying "A war is a war. A war is not a crime, and you don't bring your enemies to a courthouse."^[8]

Throughout the Obama administration, McCarthy posited that the Obama administration was advancing a "Sharia Agenda", arguing that radical Islamists were working with liberals within the United States government to subvert democracy in the West.^{[26][27][28][29][30]} In 2014, McCarthy published a book calling for Obama's impeachment, saying Obama had committed seven categories of impeachable offenses.^[31] He said, "the failure to pursue impeachment is likely to be suicide for the country."^[32]

Hillary Clinton

Even though Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State had ended in 2013, McCarthy called for her impeachment from that office in 2016 for actions performed during that tenure. The purpose of this would have been to bar her from holding further federal offices, thus frustrating her presidential run.^[33][34]

Gun violence

McCarthy has stated on Fox News that he supports gun violence restraining orders as a tool for American law enforcement to remove firearms from those found to be a danger to themselves and/or others. He believes that the measures can reduce the country's gun violence problem.^[35]

Donald Trump

In 2019, McCarthy authored Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency, alleging that the Clinton campaign and the Obama administration colluded to rig the 2016 election against Trump, who endorsed the book in September 2019.^[36] McCarthy defended Trump amid calls for his impeachment in 2019 over the Trump–Ukraine scandal wherein Trump sought to intimidate the Ukrainian president into starting an investigation of the allegedly corrupt business dealings of Hunter Biden, the son of Trump's political rival, Joe Biden.^[37][38] McCarthy expressed a belief that Trump's actions regarding the incident did not reach the level of impeachable conduct.^[31] During Donald Trump's presidency, McCarthy defended Trump before his first impeachment, but before his second impeachment, wrote that he had "committed an impeachable offense."

After the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol, McCarthy wrote that he now considered Trump's presidency "indelibly stained" and wrote, "I do think the president has committed an impeachable offense, making a reckless speech that incited a throng on the mall, which foreseeably included an insurrectionist mob." However, he also believed that Congress mishandled the impeachment both in its timing and charge.^[39][40][41]

In 2023, McCarthy wrote in National Review about Trump's federal indictment for allegedly mishandling classified documents, saying that earlier failures to prosecute Hillary Clinton did not mean that Trump is "owed a pass": "I don't believe that Trump's lawyers, who were trying to help him, would testify—as they have very reluctantly testified—that he tried to get them to destroy evidence and obstruct justice, unless he really did try to get them to destroy evidence and obstruct justice."^[42]

Publications

• Willful Blindness: Memoir of the Jihad (Encounter Books, 2008) ISBN 978-1-59-403265-3
• How Obama Embraces Islam's Sharia Agenda (Encounter Broadsides, 2010) ISBN 978-1-59-403558-6
• Team B II: Shariah: The Threat To America (Center for Security Policy Press, 2010) ISBN 978-0982294765
• The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America (Encounter Books, 2010)^[43]
• How the Obama Administration has Politicized Justice (Encounter Broadsides, 2010)^[44]
• Spring Fever: The Illusion of Islamic Democracy (Encounter Books, 2013) ISBN 978-1-59-403691-0
• Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama's Impeachment (Encounter Books, 2014)
• Islam and Free Speech (Encounter Broadside, 2015) ISBN 978-1-59-403748-1
• Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency (Encounter Books, 2019) ISBN 978-1-64-177025-5

References

1. "McCarthy, Andrew C. III." Marquis Who's Who in America, edited by Marquis Who's Who, Marquis Who's Who LLC, 70th edition, 2016. Credo Reference, https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/marquisam/mccarthy_andrew_c_iii/0 Accessed 19 May 2020.
2. "The Terror Conspiracy: A Sweeping Victory By the Home Team". The New York Times. October 2, 1995. Retrieved November 7, 2016. ...Andrew C. McCarthy, a 36-year-old Bronx native...
3. Powell, Michael (October 17, 2006). "Lawyer Sentenced for Aiding Terrorist Client; 28 Months Is Far Less Than Prosecutors Sought". The Washington Post.
4. Fletcher, Laurel E.; et al. (February 2012). "Defending the Rule of Law: Reconceptualizing Guantanamo Habeas Attorneys". Connecticut Law Review.
5. "Andrew C. McCarthy, Director, FDD's Center for Law and Counterterrorism". Biographies. Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Archived from the original on 2007-08-06. Retrieved 2007-09-26.
6. "Did Obama Write "Dreams from My Father" ... Or Did Ayers? | National Review". National Review. 2008-10-11. Retrieved 2018-04-15.
7. Sessions, David (2011-03-24). "Jack Cashill's 'Deconstructing Obama' Argues Bill Ayers Wrote Obama's Memoirs". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2018-04-15.
8. Weiser, Benjamin (February 19, 2019). "Andrew C. McCarthy, a Terrorism Prosecutor, Changes View". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
9. "Andrew C. McCarthy". American Freedom Law Center. 18 November 2013. Retrieved 2019-01-28.
10. "Giuliani for President". National Review. 2007-02-15. Retrieved 2019-01-28.
11. "Andrew McCarthy". Fox News. 2019-02-16. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
12. "Factsheet: Andrew McCarthy". Bridge Initiative. Georgetown University. September 12, 2017.
13. Meleagrou-Hitchens, Alexander; Brun, Hans (2013). A Neo-Nationalist Network: The English Defence League and Europe's Counter-Jihad Movement (PDF). International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence. p. 57.
14. "Andrew McCarthy's Defense of McCarthyism". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2018-04-15.
15. "Is Barack Obama actually not in this photo of Barack Obama?". Salon. 2011-04-07. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
16. Packer, George. "End of an Era (4)". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
17. Kaufman, Scott (12 October 2008). "Who really wrote "Obama"'s Dreams from My Father? - The Edge of the American West". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
18. "Thank the Clintons for Obama ... Again". Archived from the original on 2008-10-24.
19. "Newt Gingrich plays Goebbels for Trump in insane attack on justice department and Mueller". Salon. 2017-07-30. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
20. Chait, Jonathan (2011-07-21). "Rick Perry Takes Foreign Policy Advice From Crazy Man". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
21. washmonthly; Hilzoy (2008-10-08). "Round The Bend". Washington Monthly - Politics. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
22. "From Cynicism to Madness". 9 October 2008. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
23. Gertz, Matt (25 June 2012). "Fox's Kelly Hosts Conspiracy Theorist McCarthy For Baseless Fast And Furious Speculation". Media Matters for America. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
24. Graves, Lucas (6 September 2016). Deciding What's True: The Rise of Political Fact-Checking in American Journalism. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-54222-7. OCLC 984640600.
25. "Saying No to Justice by Andrew C. McCarthy on National Review Online". Archived from the original on 2009-05-03. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
26. results, search (2010-12-07). How Obama Embraces Islam's Sharia Agenda (Bklt ed.). 45 S: Encounter Books. ISBN 9781594035586.
27. results, search (2010-05-25). The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America (1st ed.). New York: Encounter Books. ISBN 9781594033773.
28. "Andrew McCarthy's Defense of McCarthyism". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
29. "Testimony of Andrew C. McCarthy Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts Hearing on: "Willful Blindness: Consequences of Agency Efforts to Deemphasize Radical Islam in Combating Terrorism" June 28, 2016" (PDF).
30. Foundation, The Bradley. "In Encounter Broadside, Andrew McCarthy tells how Barack Obama embraces Islam's sharia agenda > The Bradley Foundation". bradleyfdn.org. Archived from the original on 2018-09-23. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
31. Chait, Jonathan (October 31, 2019). "Republicans Want Trump to Apologize for Ukraine and Move On. He Won't". New York Magazine. Retrieved November 22, 2024.
32. Friedersdorf, Conor (May 19, 2017). "The 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' Dodge". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 22, 2024.
33. McCarthy, Andrew C. (September 6, 2016). "Impeach Clinton to Bar Her from Holding Federal Office. It's Constitutional". National Review.
34. Chait, Jonathan (September 6, 2016). "National Review Author Not Waiting for Hillary Presidency to Start Impeachment". Intelligencer.
35. Garcia, Victor (August 9, 2019). "Andrew McCarthy: 'Red flag' laws are constitutional". Fox News.
36. Last, Jonathan V. (2019-10-08). "Watch How Trump Moves the Goalposts on Ukraine". The Bulwark. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
37. McCarthy, Andrew C., "Quid Pro Quo and Extortion: Welcome to Foreign Relations," National Review, 17 Oct. 2019. Accessed 14 Mar. 2021.
38. "National Review's Strained Defense of Trump". The New Republic. 2019.
39. Moran, Lee. "Fox News Analyst: ‘Hard To Quantify’ How Badly Trump Betrayed The Constitution," Huffington Post, 12 Feb. 2021. Accessed 14 Mar. 2021.
40. McCarthy, Andrew. "Impeachment, by the Numbers," National Review, 9 Jan. 2021. Retrieved 10 Jan. 2021.
41. McCarthy, Andrew, "Andrew McCarthy: Trump and impeachment – with days left in his term, what should Congress do?," Fox News, 11 Jan. 2021. Accessed 14 Mar. 2021.
42. McCarthy, Andrew C. (June 10, 2023). "Why Trump's 'Witch Hunt' Cries Ring Hollow in Face of DOJ Indictment". National Review. Retrieved June 11, 2023.
43. McCarthy, Andrew (2010). The Grand Jihad. San Francisco: Encounter Books. ISBN 978-1-59403-377-3.
44. McCarthy, Andrew (2010). How the Obama Administration Has Politicized Justice. San Francisco: Encounter Books. ISBN 978-1-59403-474-9.

External links

• Appearances on C-SPAN