Andy McCarthy Argues ICE Officer Is Not Guilty — But Smacks Down Trump Admin’s Domestic Terror Label for Renee Good

Andy McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor and current Fox News contributor, argued that the ICE officer who shot Renee Good is not in legal peril in his latest column for National Review.

Observing that the incident “is fertile field for demogagy,” McCarthy rebuked both Minnesota Democrats, such as Tim Walz, Jacob Frey, and Keith Ellison, and “Trump Department of Homeland Security officials, for whom it is not enough to defend the agent’s actions as ‘self-defense’; they have accused the deceased driver of committing ‘an act of domestic terrorism.'”

“That is the kind of hyperbole we don’t need from an agency that exists because of terrorism (it was established due to the 9/11 atrocities) and should, presumably, know what it is — and is not. Whether we conclude it’s an attempted murder or an attempted escape, it’s not a terrorist attack,” he added before going on to explain why he believes the officer is not legally liable for what happened on Wednesday.

“The battle lines are being drawn on what seems to me to be a flawed legal assumption, to wit: If the woman — who was allegedly blocking ICE agents with her car — was ‘merely’ trying to flee rather than run the agent over, she should be understood as a murder victim rather than a criminal engaged in a dangerous act that justified the use of lethal force by law enforcement. It’s really not an either/or situation,” explained McCarthy. “Undoubtedly, if it is reasonable to construe the woman’s action as a deliberate attempt to mow down an ICE agent with a speeding vehicle, the use of force was justified. But even if the woman was mainly trying to get away (which is what it looks like to me), she was engaged in an actionable assault on a federal officer, a felony under Section 111 of the federal penal code.”

“Even if you believe, as I’m inclined to believe based on what we’ve seen so far, that the woman was just trying to get away, she did so by swiping the car in the agent’s direction. She may not have intended to run him over, but she sure didn’t appear to be trying to avoid running him over if that was necessary to escape.

“Either way, the agent’s life was jeopardized, and the responsive use of force would be reasonable,” he concluded.

The conservative commentator went on to argue that the matter is a federal one, and that the given the Trump administration’s stance on it, the officer is not at much legal risk.

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