Jack Smith’s ‘Chief Operating Officer,’ J.P. Cooney, Runs for Congress To ‘Finish the Job’ and Impeach Trump

One of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s primary deputies in his criminal prosecutions of President Trump, J.P. Cooney, is running for Congress as a Democrat in Virginia’s newly drawn seventh congressional district— and vowing to impeach the 47th president.Mr. Cooney on Sunday told CNN unequivocally that “Donald Trump needs to be impeached. I saw his crimes upfront as Jack Smith’s deputy special counsel, and it has only gotten worse.” Mr. Cooney added that he is running for Congress in Virginia to “finish the job and hold Trump accountable for his crimes to the nation.”Mr. Cooney declares that “you can take your pick of high crimes that Donald Trump has committed against the nation.” That language echoes the “high crimes and misdemeanors” constitutional standard for impeachment of federal officials. He calls the president’s actions during his second term the “gravest threat to the rule of law” that America has ever faced. Virginia’s seventh congressional district is currently being represented by Congressman Eugene Vindman. His twin brother, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, testified to Congress about a phone call in 2019 between Mr. Trump and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. That conversation served as the basis for the first impeachment of Mr. Trump. He was acquitted by the Senate on two counts in February of 2020.The district, which leans Democratic, would be affected by the ongoing battle over redistricting in Virginia. A referendum passed last month by a slim margin gives Democrats the opportunity to pick up four more seats ahead of the 2026 midterms. The legality of the new map, though, is being contested in the courts, and could ultimately be decided by the Virginia Supreme Court.If the redistricting plan survives the courts, Mr. Vindman would likely move over to another district and the seventh district — whose boundaries are drawn to ensure that it will be all but impossible for a Democrat to lose — would be bereft of an incumbent. Mr. Cooney’s statement on impeaching Mr. Trump suggests that he has concluded that an aggressive posture toward the president could be a winner in the newly drawn district. Mr. Cooney is the first alumnus of Mr. Smith’s twin cases against Mr. Trump — for the storage of documents at Mar-a-Lago and for January 6 — to run for elected office. Mr. Cooney, in the years since Mr. Trump won reelection and Mr. Smith’s two prosecutions were dismissed, has practiced law at a small firm he founded with another former member of Mr. Smith’s team, Molly Gaston. Mr. Cooney’s biography on his firm website explains that he was Mr. Smith’s “chief operating officer.”Mr. Smith has opened his own law firm, Heaphy, Smith, Harbach, & Windom LLP, with other erstwhile members of his team. The lead partner, Tim Heaphy, was the head legal counsel for the House January 6 Committee, which was dominated by Democrats and ended up criminally referring Mr. Trump for prosecution. Mr. Heaphy explains that the firm will “attract a lot of people interested in taking on the current Administration.”Mr. Smith has offered a full throated defender of his work against Mr. Trump. He told Congress that his office — including Mr. Cooney — adduced proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Mr. Trump committed crimes in connection with the 2020 election. Mr. Smith has denounced as “ludicrous” the allegations that he was motivated by politics. He has written that he would have convicted Mr. Trump “but for” the results of the 2024 election.Republicans have directed particular scrutiny at “Operation Arctic Frost,” the probe launched by Messrs. Smith and Cooney into Republican efforts to contest the results of the 2020 presidential election. The investigation involved the telephone surveillance of 14 GOP lawmakers, including eight senators. Dozens of other Republicans, including the current director of the FBI, Kash Patel, were surveilled. Only Mr. Trump faced criminal charges.Mr. Cooney was also involved in the prosecution of Mr. Trump for the retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Details of that prosecution — beyond the indictment — are scarce because Mr. Smith’s final report on the case has been “permanently blocked” by Judge Aileen Cannon of the Southern District of Florida. An internal memorandum published by Republican lawmakers included allegations that one record was so secret that only six people, including the president, were authorized to view it. Mr. Smith told an audience at Harvard Law School in February that the Trump DOJ “is not normal” and that the “traditions of the department are being set aside because particular outcomes are wanted. I see people being targeted because of their opposition to the president or because he perceives them as an enemy.” Messrs. Cooney and Smith have both faced investigation from Congressional Republicans. The New York Times reckons that Mr. Cooney was “known for his aggressive approach,”Mr. Cooney, who lives with his family in the house in which he grew up, previously served as the chief of the District of Columbia United States Attorney’s Office’s Fraud, Public Corruption, and Civil Rights Section. He also was the deputy chief of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section. That is likely when he forged a bond with Mr. Smith, who led that section. Mr. Cooney also prosecuted Senator Robert Menendez, who was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison for bribery.

Jack Smith’s ‘Chief Operating Officer,’ J.P. Cooney, Runs for Congress To ‘Finish the Job’ and Impeach Trump

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