The swamp never forgets its own. That much was made clear after longtime Fox News contributor and supposed “conservative” legal analyst Andy McCarthy shocked viewers and readers alike by leaping to the defense of disgraced former FBI Director James Comey.

Comey, who presided over one of the darkest chapters of the FBI’s history, was indicted on charges of lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding. The charges stem from his misleading testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020 about the Bureau’s involvement in the infamous Russia Hoax—a political witch hunt cooked up to kneecap Donald Trump’s presidency before it even began. A federal grand jury saw enough evidence to indict, but McCarthy insists the case should be tossed out altogether.

Writing in the pages of the ever-anti-Trump *National Review*, McCarthy argued that the indictment “is so ill-conceived that the longer one analyzes it, the worse it gets.” He went so far as to declare the charges “factually without foundation” and demanded they be dismissed.

McCarthy then carried the same talking points to Fox News, where he doubled down and nitpicked testimony to exonerate Comey. He claimed that since former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe authorized the leak to the *Wall Street Journal*, Comey technically didn’t lie when he denied involvement. “The only way you could convict Comey beyond a reasonable doubt,” McCarthy argued, “is if he personally authorized the leak and knew he was lying about it. By all accounts, he didn’t.”

That hair-splitting defense didn’t sit well with grassroots conservatives who have watched Comey’s years-long crusade against Trump and his supporters. To many, McCarthy’s defense of Comey smacks of Deep State loyalty rather than principled legal reasoning. After all, this is the same Comey who signed off on the fraudulent FISA warrants that spied on Trump’s campaign and peddled the Steele Dossier nonsense as if it were fact.

MAGA supporters took to social media to voice their outrage. One post bluntly declared, “Bolton’s friend Andy McCarthy is having a meltdown. He is probably under investigation himself. Tell us about your involvement in the Mar-a-Lago raid, Andy.” Another called him out as a wolf in sheep’s clothing: “Andy McCarthy. I never realized he was a Democrat. WOW! Some of his comments are heavy leaning left! Surprising to me!” Others simply labeled him what many now suspect: “a Deep State rat.”

For years, conservatives have warned that the Beltway legal establishment is more loyal to its own than to the truth. McCarthy’s dismissal of the case against Comey only reinforces that suspicion. While he insists the indictment is flawed, what millions of Americans see is yet another Washington insider circling the wagons to protect one of the chief architects of the Trump-Russia hoax.

The bottom line is this: James Comey misled Congress and the American people, and he did it to protect a narrative designed to cripple a duly elected president. If the DOJ case against him falls apart, it will not be because he is innocent—but because the Deep State still protects its own.