Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy III (born 1959) is an American lawyer and columnist for National Review.

He served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

In 1986, he was hired as a prosecutor at the Southern District and worked directly for then US Attorney for the district, 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.

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.

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.

He has been considered as a more moderate part of the counter-jihad movement as he distinguishes between Islam and Islamism.

The defendants were convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and planning a series of attacks against New York City landmarks.

He also contributed to the prosecutions of terrorists who bombed United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

McCarthy was a key member of the terrorism prosecution team after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

A Republican, he led the 1995 terrorism prosecution against Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and eleven others.

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 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.

McCarthy is the oldest of six children.

His father died when he was 13.

He graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx borough of New York City, and Columbia College.

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.

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.

He has also served as an adjunct professor at New York Law School and Fordham University School of Law.

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.

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. McCarthy reviewed the article as "thorough, thoughtful, and alarming".

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."

He claimed that Obama was engaged in "bottom-up socialism."

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."

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.