Jack Smith’s Top Deputies Join Effort To Torment Trump in Court as Special Counsel Braces for Possible Prosecution

Two of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s most senior deputies — J.P. Clooney and Molly Gaston — are formalizing their efforts to fight the Trump administration in court even as their former boss faces possible legal peril. Mr. Cooney and Ms. Gaston are joining a legal non-profit, Democracy Forward. In a statement emailed to The New York Sun, Democracy Forward notes that the two prosecutors will focus on the “Trump-Vance administration’s unprecedented self-dealing” and the Department of Justice’s “novel abandonment of its public corruption enforcement mandate.” Democracy Forward sued the Trump administration more than 150 times in 2025. Democracy Forward boasts that Mr. Cooney and Ms. Gaston “have had their hands in some of the most significant matters investigating and prosecuting corruption and malfeasance, including wrongdoing by President Trump.” Mr. Cooney served as Mr. Smith’s principal deputy for the two prosecutions of Mr. Trump — for the storage of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and for efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Both of those cases ended in dismissals after Mr. Trump was reelected in 2024.Ms. Gaston served as Mr. Smith’s senior assistant special counsel, with particular responsibility for prosecuting the election interference case. That litigation got off to a fast start, with Mr. Smith and Ms. Gastoin notching a series of pre-trial victories before Judge Tanya Chutkan and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Both of those courts ruled that presidents were not entitled to criminal immunity.The government’s momentum stalled in the summer of 2024 when the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States that official presidential acts are presumptively immune from prosecution, while unofficial ones lack that protection. Actions that are in the “conclusive and preclusive” ambit of presidential responsibility — like the pardon power — are owed “absolute” protection. The high court remanded the case back to Judge Chutkan.Mr. Smith and Ms. Gaston ran out of time before the election, with the special counsel conceding that longstanding DOJ policy imposes a “categorical” ban on prosecuting sitting presidents. In Mr. Smith’s final report, though — likely compiled with the close assistance of Ms. Gaston — he asserted that he would have convicted Mr. Trump “but for” the outcome of the election. Mr. Smith testified that he could have proven Mr.Trump’s guilt for a “criminal” scheme “beyond a reasonable doubt.”Mr. Smith resigned days before Mr. Trump swore the oath for a second time. Earlier this year Mr. Cooney launched a bid for Congress as a Democrat at Virginia’s Seventh District. He ended his campaign after the Old Dominion’s Supreme Court rejected an effort to redraw the state’s maps to favor Democrats. The new maps would have altered the state’s 11 districts to ensure that Democrats would have been favored in 10 of those.Mr. Cooney’s campaign had vowed to “finish the job and hold Trump accountable for his crimes to the nation.” He told CNN 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.” Before joining Democracy Forward Mr. Cooney and Ms. Gaston founded a law firm together, an enterprise that they will now disband. They accuse Mr. Trump’s DOJ of “displaying wanton disregard for the rule of law in order to benefit financially, politically, and legally.” That echoes Mr. Smith’s accusation that the 47th president has “corrupted” the DOJ.Mr. Smith has opened his own law firm, Heaphy, Smith, Harbach, & Windom LLP, with former members of his team. The firm is accepting applications for employment from those who possess “strong judgment, superior writing and analytical skills, and the ability to thrive in high-stakes, fast-moving environments.” Prospective attorneys are expected to be “good-natured, kind people who value team success over personal success.” Mr. Smith has also hired his own defense attorneys — Peter Koski and Lanny Breuer of the Covington & Burling firm — to help him parry attacks from Republicans. Mr. Smith has testified that he expects to be indicted, and last month Congressman Jim Jordan criminally referred him to the DOJ for allegedly lying to Congress. Mr. Trump has declared his desire that Mr. Smith face prosecution.One possible step in that direction could be the convening by the United States attorney for the District of Columbia, Judge Jenine Pirro, of a “special grand jury” at the District of Columbia. That is the same species of grand jury that handed up criminal charges against Mr. Trump for election interference at Fulton County, Georgia. It is not yet known who or what is being probed by the D.C. grand jury.

Jack Smith’s Top Deputies Join Effort To Torment Trump in Court as Special Counsel Braces for Possible Prosecution

Jack Smith’s Top Deputies Join Effort To Torment Trump in Court as Special Counsel Braces for Possible Prosecution

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