Andrew C. McCarthy

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Andrew McCarthy

| birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date|36|1995|10|2}}

| birth_place = The Bronx, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| party = Republican"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.

| education = Columbia University (BA)
New York Law School (JD)

| office = Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York

| image = NYC Trump court trial 2024-05-29 049.jpg

| caption = McCarthy reporting on the prosecution of Donald Trump in New York

}}

Andrew C. McCarthy III (born {{birth based on age as of date|36|1995|10|2|noage=1}}){{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/02/nyregion/the-terror-conspiracy-a-sweeping-victory-by-the-home-team.html|title=The Terror Conspiracy: A Sweeping Victory By the Home Team|work=The New York Times|date=October 2, 1995|access-date=November 7, 2016|quote=...Andrew C. McCarthy, a 36-year-old Bronx native...}} is an American lawyer and columnist for National Review. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.{{cite news | title=Lawyer Sentenced for Aiding Terrorist Client; 28 Months Is Far Less Than Prosecutors Sought | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=October 17, 2006 | author=Powell, Michael}}{{cite journal | title=Defending the Rule of Law: Reconceptualizing Guantanamo Habeas Attorneys | author=Fletcher, Laurel E. | journal=Connecticut Law Review |date=February 2012 |display-authors=etal}} 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.{{cite web

| access-date = 2007-09-26

| url = http://www.defenddemocracy.org/biographies/biographies_show.htm?attrib_id=9716

| title = Andrew C. McCarthy, Director, FDD's Center for Law and Counterterrorism

| work = Biographies

| publisher = Foundation for Defense of Democracies

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070806225852/http://www.defenddemocracy.org/biographies/biographies_show.htm?attrib_id=9716

| archive-date = 2007-08-06

| url-status = dead

}} 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 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.

Early life and career

McCarthy is the oldest of six children. His father died when he was 13.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/nyregion/20prosecutor.html|title=Andrew C. McCarthy, a Terrorism Prosecutor, Changes View|last=Weiser|first=Benjamin|date=February 19, 2019|work=The New York Times|access-date=January 28, 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} He graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx borough of New York City, and Columbia College.{{Cite web|url=https://www.americanfreedomlawcenter.org/about/advisory-board/andrew-c-mccarthy/|title=Andrew C. McCarthy|website=American Freedom Law Center|date=18 November 2013 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-01-28}} After graduating from Columbia, McCarthy became a Deputy United States Marshal in the Federal Witness Protection Program. While working at the US Marshal's Office, he studied law at New York Law School. He later joined the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York as a paralegal.

In 1986, he was hired as a prosecutor at the Southern District and worked directly for then US Attorney for the district, Rudy Giuliani.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2007/02/giuliani-president-andrew-c-mccarthy/|title=Giuliani for President|date=2007-02-15|website=National Review|language=en-US|access-date=2019-01-28}} 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. 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.

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.

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.{{cite web | title=Andrew McCarthy | website=Fox News | date=2019-02-16 | url=https://www.foxnews.com/person/m/andrew-mccarthy | access-date=2019-02-16}} He has also served as an adjunct professor at New York Law School and Fordham University School of Law.

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.”

He criticized the Obama administration for trying suspected terrorists in civilian courts.

= 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.{{cite web|url=https://bridge.georgetown.edu/research/factsheet-andrew-mccarthy/|title=Factsheet: Andrew McCarthy|date=September 12, 2017|work=Bridge Initiative|publisher=Georgetown University}} He has been considered as a more moderate part of the counter-jihad movement as he distinguishes between Islam and Islamism.{{cite book|url=https://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ICSR-Report-A-Neo-Nationalist-Network-The-English-Defence-League-and-Europe%E2%80%99s-Counter-Jihad-Movement.pdf|page=57|title=A Neo-Nationalist Network: The English Defence League and Europe's Counter-Jihad Movement|first1=Alexander|last1=Meleagrou-Hitchens|first2=Hans|last2=Brun|publisher=International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence|year=2013}}

= 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. In February 2007, McCarthy authored an endorsement for the fledgling candidacy of Rudy Giuliani during the 2008 presidential election campaign in the National Review. McCarthy also served as Giuliani's attorney during the campaign.{{Citation needed|date=March 2020}}

= 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.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/03/24/jack-cashills-deconstructing-obama-argues-bill-ayers-wrote-obamas-memoirs|title=Jack Cashill's 'Deconstructing Obama' Argues Bill Ayers Wrote Obama's Memoirs|last=Sessions|first=David|date=2011-03-24|work=The Daily Beast|access-date=2018-04-15|language=en}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/08/andrew-mccarthys-defense-mccarthyism/|title=Andrew McCarthy's Defense of McCarthyism|work=Mother Jones|access-date=2018-04-15|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.salon.com/2011/04/07/birther_photoshop_fail/|title=Is Barack Obama actually not in this photo of Barack Obama?|date=2011-04-07|website=Salon|language=en|access-date=2019-12-20}}{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/george-packer/end-of-an-era-4|title=End of an Era (4)|last=Packer|first=George|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en|access-date=2020-03-06}} McCarthy reviewed the article as "thorough, thoughtful, and alarming".{{Cite news|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/did-obama-write-dreams-my-father-or-did-ayers-andrew-c-mccarthy/|title=Did Obama Write "Dreams from My Father" ... Or Did Ayers? {{!}} National Review|date=2008-10-11|work=National Review|access-date=2018-04-15|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.chronicle.com/blognetwork/edgeofthewest/2008/10/12/who-really-wrote-obamas-dreams-from-my-father/|title=Who really wrote "Obama"'s Dreams from My Father? - The Edge of the American West|last=Kaufman|first=Scott|website=The Chronicle of Higher Education|date=12 October 2008 |language=en|access-date=2019-12-20}} 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."{{cite web|url=http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzFmZGNiMjM2OTgzNDRlYzNmY2UzMmQ2ZDVjODJkZDc=|title=Thank the Clintons for Obama ... Again | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081024045150/http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzFmZGNiMjM2OTgzNDRlYzNmY2UzMmQ2ZDVjODJkZDc%3D | archive-date=2008-10-24|url-status=dead}}

{{Cite web|url=https://www.salon.com/2017/07/30/newt-gingrich-plays-goebbels-for-trump-in-insane-attack-on-justice-department-and-mueller_partner/|title=Newt Gingrich plays Goebbels for Trump in insane attack on justice department and Mueller|date=2017-07-30|website=Salon|language=en|access-date=2019-12-20}} He claimed that Obama was engaged in "bottom-up socialism."{{Cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/92375/rick-perry-takes-foreign-policy-advice-crazy-man|title=Rick Perry Takes Foreign Policy Advice From Crazy Man|last=Chait|first=Jonathan|date=2011-07-21|magazine=The New Republic|access-date=2019-12-20|issn=0028-6583}}{{Cite web|url=https://washingtonmonthly.com/2008/10/08/round-the-bend/|title=Round The Bend|last1=washmonthly|last2=Hilzoy|date=2008-10-08|website=Washington Monthly - Politics|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-06}}{{Cite web|url=https://archive.thinkprogress.org/from-cynicism-to-madness-1f50b032d305/|title=From Cynicism to Madness|date=9 October 2008 |language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-06}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-kelly-hosts-conspiracy-theorist-mccarthy-baseless-fast-and-furious-speculation|title=Fox's Kelly Hosts Conspiracy Theorist McCarthy For Baseless Fast And Furious Speculation|last=Gertz|first=Matt|website=Media Matters for America|date=25 June 2012 |language=en|access-date=2020-03-06}}

McCarthy defended Sarah Palin's claim that Obama's health care reform, the Affordable Care Act, would lead to the creation of "death panels."{{Cite book|last=Graves, Lucas|title=Deciding What's True: The Rise of Political Fact-Checking in American Journalism|date=6 September 2016|publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-54222-7|oclc=984640600}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://article.nationalreview.com/?q%3DMjA0YmFlMzk3ZmFkNTQwYjFiNmM0OTExYzNhNjg5NDE%3D |title=Saying No to Justice by Andrew C. McCarthy on National Review Online |access-date=2009-05-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090503142942/http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjA0YmFlMzk3ZmFkNTQwYjFiNmM0OTExYzNhNjg5NDE%3D |archive-date=2009-05-03 }} 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."

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.{{Cite book|title=How Obama Embraces Islam's Sharia Agenda|last=results|first=search|date=2010-12-07|publisher=Encounter Books|isbn=9781594035586|edition= Bklt |location=45 S|language=en}}{{Cite book|title=The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America|last=results|first=search|date=2010-05-25|publisher=Encounter Books|isbn=9781594033773|edition= 1st|location=New York|language=en}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/08/andrew-mccarthys-defense-mccarthyism/|title=Andrew McCarthy's Defense of McCarthyism|work=Mother Jones|access-date=2018-09-23|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/06-28-16%20McCarthy%20Testimony.pdf|title=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.}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.bradleyfdn.org/On-Lion-Letter/ID/864/In-Encounter-Broadside-Andrew-McCarthy-tells-how-Barack-Obama-embraces-Islam39s-sharia-agenda|title=In Encounter Broadside, Andrew McCarthy tells how Barack Obama embraces Islam's sharia agenda > The Bradley Foundation|last=Foundation|first=The Bradley|website=bradleyfdn.org|language=en-US|access-date=2018-09-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923200702/http://www.bradleyfdn.org/On-Lion-Letter/ID/864/In-Encounter-Broadside-Andrew-McCarthy-tells-how-Barack-Obama-embraces-Islam39s-sharia-agenda|archive-date=2018-09-23|url-status=dead}} In 2014, McCarthy published a book calling for Obama's impeachment, saying Obama had committed seven categories of impeachable offenses.{{Cite news|url=http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/10/impeachment-republican-senate-apologize-move-on.html|title=Republicans Want Trump to Apologize for Ukraine and Move On. He Won't.|date=October 31, 2019|work=New York Magazine|first=Jonathan|last=Chait|access-date=November 22, 2024}} He said, "the failure to pursue impeachment is likely to be suicide for the country."{{Cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/the-trump-derangement-syndrome-dodge/527154/|title=The 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' Dodge|date=May 19, 2017|work=The Atlantic|first=Conor|last=Friedersdorf|access-date=November 22, 2024}}

= 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.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/09/impeach-hillary-clinton-congress-has-power-do-it/|title=Impeach Clinton to Bar Her from Holding Federal Office. It's Constitutional.|date=September 6, 2016|first=Andrew C.|last=McCarthy|magazine=National Review}}{{Cite web|url=http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/09/national-review-author-is-ready-for-impeaching-hillary.html|title=National Review Author Not Waiting for Hillary Presidency to Start Impeachment|last=Chait|first=Jonathan|website=Intelligencer|language=en-us|date=September 6, 2016}}

= 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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/media/andrew-mccarthy-red-flag-laws-are-constitutional|title=Andrew McCarthy: 'Red flag' laws are constitutional|first=Victor|last=Garcia|date=August 9, 2019|publisher=Fox News}}

= 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.{{Cite web|url=https://thebulwark.com/watch-how-trump-moves-the-goalposts-on-ukraine/|title=Watch How Trump Moves the Goalposts on Ukraine|date=2019-10-08|website=The Bulwark|first=Jonathan V.|last=Last|language=en-US|access-date=2019-10-14}} 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.McCarthy, Andrew C., "[https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/quid-pro-quo-and-extortion-welcome-to-foreign-relations/ Quid Pro Quo and Extortion: Welcome to Foreign Relations]," National Review, 17 Oct. 2019. Accessed 14 Mar. 2021.{{Cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/155313/national-reviews-strained-defense-trump|title=National Review's Strained Defense of Trump|date=2019|magazine=The New Republic}} McCarthy expressed a belief that Trump's actions regarding the incident did not reach the level of impeachable conduct. 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.Moran, Lee. "[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/andrew-mccarthy-fox-news-donald-trump-impeachment_n_602631fbc5b6741597e11374 Fox News Analyst: ‘Hard To Quantify’ How Badly Trump Betrayed The Constitution]," Huffington Post, 12 Feb. 2021. Accessed 14 Mar. 2021.McCarthy, Andrew. "[https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/01/impeachment-by-the-numbers/#slide-1 Impeachment, by the Numbers]," National Review, 9 Jan. 2021. Retrieved 10 Jan. 2021.McCarthy, Andrew, "[https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-impeachment-term-ending-congress-andrew-mccarthy Andrew McCarthy: Trump and impeachment – with days left in his term, what should Congress do?]," Fox News, 11 Jan. 2021. Accessed 14 Mar. 2021.

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."{{cite web |last1=McCarthy |first1=Andrew C. |title=Why Trump's 'Witch Hunt' Cries Ring Hollow in Face of DOJ Indictment |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/06/why-trumps-witch-hunt-cries-ring-hollow-in-face-of-doj-indictment/ |website=National Review |access-date=June 11, 2023 |date=June 10, 2023}}

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){{cite book | last = McCarthy | first = Andrew | title = The Grand Jihad | publisher = Encounter Books | location = San Francisco | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-1-59403-377-3}}
How the Obama Administration has Politicized Justice (Encounter Broadsides, 2010)

{{cite book | last = McCarthy | first = Andrew | title = How the Obama Administration Has Politicized Justice | publisher = Encounter Books | location = San Francisco | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-1-59403-474-9}}

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}}