Conservative National Review columnist Andy McCarthy, who served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York when Rudy Giuliani was U.S. Attorney for the District, has been covering the Trump administration’s indictment of former FBI Director James Comey.
Note: President Trump’s newly hired U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, got Comey indicted on two charges, alleging that he made false statements during a congressional testimony about authorizing a leak to The Wall Street Journal concerning the FBI’s 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton‘s email and alleged connections between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
In McCarthy’s recent op-ed, ‘The Deeply Flawed James Comey Indictment,’ he wrote: “The political animus that fueled the indictment against James Comey is bad, but it may pale in comparison to the incompetence of the Trump Justice Department’s execution of the lawfare ordered by the president.”
Fellow conservative journalist Paul Sperry of Real Clear Investigations, responded to the op-ed on social media, and wrote: “Fox legal analyst Andrew McCarthy falsely assumed in his knee-jerk analysis dismissing James Comey perjury indictment as ‘deeply flawed’ that the case centered on Andrew McCabe. But new court filings confirm it centers on Daniel Richman, who is ‘3.’”
Fox legal analyst Andrew McCarthy falsely assumed in his knee-jerk analysis dismissing James Comey perjury indictment as “deeply flawed” that the case centered on Andrew McCabe. But new court filings confirm it centers on Daniel Richman, who is “Person 3.”https://t.co/N00dyz7z0F
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) October 27, 2025
[Note: Daniel Richman, a professor at Columbia Law School, served as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York before becoming a special government employee for the FBI.]
In 2017, at a public hearing with the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Comey said he didn’t ask FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to leak his memos detailing conversations with President Trump in which the POTUS allegedly asked Comey to squash a Russia-centered investigation into Trump ally, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s short-lived National Security Advisor.
Instead, Comey said he asked “a close friend” to leak the memos to the press. Richman later confirmed to the press that he was the close friend.
McCarthy replied to Sperry on social media: “Paul, I didn’t assume it. Cruz question in indictment is about McCabe. As non-lawyer, you have never litigated an indictment. Prosecutors can’t change Cruz’s questions by pretending their reference to Richman (Person 3) changes meaning of Comey’s testimony. Nice try, tho …”
Comey’s testimony in 2020
On left:
In hearing, Senator Cruz erroneously claimed McCabe had said Comey “directly authorized” leak to press. Comey denied that.
On right:
McCabe did not say Comey authorized the leak (source: Inspector General Report, on which Cruz relies) pic.twitter.com/UzXaiftdab
— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) September 25, 2025
In the indictment, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is quoted as pressing Comey about McCabe’s leak to The Wall Street Journal. According to McCarthy’s op-ed, “The perjury count alleges that Comey falsely denied authorizing the leak. But McCabe, who admitted to authorizing the leak, never claimed that Comey authorized it.”
McCarthy: I love Ted but McCabe never said that Comey authorized it.
They’re not going to be able to prove he authorized the leak. By all accounts he didn’t. I don’t think this case even gets to trial. pic.twitter.com/mpLouSuZ19
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 26, 2025
McCarthy told Fox News in September that “the only way you could convict Comey beyond a reasonable doubt is Comey would have to truly believe that he personally had authorized the leak, he would have actually authorized the leak, and then he would have had to know that he was lying when he denied it to the Senate. They’re not even going to be able to prove that he authorized the leak because by all accounts he didn’t. So I don’t think this case even gets to trial.”