The disgraced former chairman of the House Intel Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, invited Andrew McCarthy to testify on his behest during today's House Intel Committee on Mueller Report Lessons Learned.
As you've come to expect of a Trump surrogate who has forgone his responsibilities to Congress, Nunes is only interested in smearing the entire Robert Mueller investigations to exonerate his lord and savior, Donald Trump.
McCarthy is a former SDNY prosecutor, Fox News contributor and NRO stalwart as well as a good friend of Rudy Giuliani.
He has promoted some truly awful views on Fox News, especially his promotion of "sharia law," the idea that the Russian investigations should have never happened. Rep. Devin Nunes' invited him to the Intel Committee hearing to help him muddy the waters.
Chairman Adam Schiff was so thorough in his questioning that several times McCarthy was left silent, stammering and admitting to not knowing specifics when trying to answer basic questions about how the investigations into Russia and the Trump campaign began and what Republicans are using to smear the special counsel.
I clipped a large portion of McCarthy's testimony because it's so revealing and it's the type of grilling Fox News would never deliver.
- McCarthy was forced to admit that the FISA warrants and applications "didn't initiate" the Russia/Trump investigations.
- McCarthy was forced to just speculate on Carter Page and his being investigated since he was no longer in the Trump campaign when the investigations began. "I'm speculating from the outside."
- McCarthy had to admit that James Comey should never have made statements about the FBI's Hillary Clinton investigations.
- McCarty believes the judges who signed off on the FISA applications were wrong to investigation Trump. "I didn't think anyone was acting in bad faith on the FISA court."Schiff asked sardonically, "So all of them just made mistakes?"
"That's right," McCarty answered. - McCarthy couldn't explain how the Mueller Report relies on the Steele Dossier. "I can't think of anything that he relied on in terms of any kind of important conclusion." What will Sean Hannity have to talk about then?
- McCarthy admitted he had no inside information on when the counterintelligence investigations began on Donald Trump.
Chairman Schiff cornered him over that issue by asking that if FBI agents wanting to derail Trump's candidacy would have told the American people that Trump was being investigated before the general election.
"... To scuttle, wouldn't the Trump investigations been exposed before the election and not after? If FBI agents were determined to scuttle, act unprofessionally and scuttle the Trump campaign, would they not have disclosed the fact that they were investigating the campaign of a presidential candidate for links with a foreign adversary?" Schiff asked.
McCarthy began stammering, "Mr. Chairman I'm not trying to be difficult. I never have said that they were trying to scuttle the Trump campaign. I don't know that there's evidence they were trying to scuttle the Trump campaign so I don't want to be in a position of agreeing that that is my position because it's not."
At first, McCarthy tried to defend the FBI's outrageous actions against Hillary Clinton by saying it was a very public investigation and said since Trump investigation was a counterintelligence operation "it was classified."
"They are not allowed to talk about it. They are two different things, " he said.
Schiff countered, "They aren't really supposed to talk about a pending criminal investigation either, are they?"
"No, you're right," McCarthy admitted. "If there are no charges the government should not speak until the government speaks in court. You are not supposed to talk about investigations until you formally charge someone and then they have the full array of constitutional protections that they get to defend themselves."
" So in terms of the public actions taken by the bureau during the presidential campaign, they had the effect of disclosing and discussing the investigation involving Hillary Clinton but not Donald Trump, correct?" asked Schiff.
McCarthy tried to claim that a single article in Yahoo! News was just as damaging as James Comey's press conference and the subsequent October surprise letter against Hillary Clinton.
Schiff continued, "There is no public acknowledgment by the FBI of any investigation of Donald Trump or his campaign prior to the election, isn't that true?
McCarthy said, "No."
Andrew McCarthy was much more formal, forthcoming and careful than any time when he appeared on Fox News. Adam Schiff made him look weak and ineffective.
How interesting.
