One Fox News pundit has a message for Republicans rushing to open an investigation into former President Barack Obama: Not so fast.
Andy McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor and frequent guest on Fox’s America’s Newsroom, told Brian Hemmer on Friday that appointing a special counsel to investigate claims that the Obama administration cooked up the story about Russian election interference would be a “waste of time.”
His message comes a day after two prominent Republican senators, John Cornyn and Lindsey Graham, urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to appoint a special counsel to investigate Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s recent claims about the former president.
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On Wednesday, Gabbard declassified a House report evaluating the intelligence community’s investigation into Russian election interference in 2016. She claimed the report showed evidence of a “years-long coup” against President Donald Trump orchestrated by Obama-era officials.
McCarthy listed at least three reasons why it would be a tactical error for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to launch a “Russiagate” investigation by appointing a special counsel.
Two of those reasons stem directly from the criminal investigations into Trump, which resulted in one conviction and three other cases that were thrown out of court or postponed indefinitely.
First, Trump’s criminal case in Florida—in which the president was accused of mishandling classified documents and storing them at Mar-a-Lago—was dismissed after Trump’s legal team argued that the DOJ’s process for appointing special counsels was unconstitutional.
“So there’s that problem,” McCarthy said.
Second, the Supreme Court held last year that presidents have immunity from prosecutions relating to official acts they committed while in office. That ruling resulted in the end of Trump’s criminal prosecution for his role in the events of January 6.
“Obviously, that would apply to Obama, too,” McCarthy said.
Earlier on Friday, Trump seemed to acknowledge as much when he said that Obama “owes me big” for the Supreme Court ruling.
Lastly, McCarthy said that the typical rationale for appointing a special counsel—a conflict of interest between the DOJ and the subject of the investigation—does not exist.
“The most basic thing, Bill, is you only appoint a special counsel ... when there is a conflict of interest between the Justice Department and whoever is under investigation.”
President Trump has not explicitly called for a special counsel at this point, but he told reporters earlier this week that an investigation into Obama officials is “a very, very serious thing.”
McCarthy also appeared on Fox on Thursday and refuted the accusations against President Obama.
“They were throwing around the word treason in the last couple of days, which you know, is preposterous,” he said.
Gabbard has not announced her next move in the evolving pseudo-scandal.
