JP Cooney and Molly Gaston, who previously worked for former special counsel Jack Smith at the Department of Justice, are bringing their legal expertise against President Donald Trump to Democracy Forward.
The legal advocacy organization hired the two veteran federal prosecutors to build a team focused on fighting the Trump administration’s “corruption and weaponization of government.” The nonprofit group filed more than 150 lawsuits against the administration last year.
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Smith’s former top deputies worked on Trump’s federal prosecutions until those cases were dismissed. They were then fired in the early days of Trump’s second term. Both were career DOJ prosecutors.
“For years, we represented the United States in holding the most powerful accountable for public corruption and civil rights abuses,” Cooney and Gaston said in a joint statement released by the organization they’re joining. “Given this administration’s deprioritization of such enforcement at a time of unprecedented self-dealing throughout the federal government, we are privileged to join Democracy Forward’s incredibly talented and courageous team in the fight for accountability.”
Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman welcomed the two new hires, whom he said “have dedicated their careers to serving the American people and the rule of law.”
One of Democracy Forward’s recent lawsuits successfully halted the DOJ’s $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund, which arose from a settlement between Trump and the Internal Revenue Service regarding his past leaked tax returns.
In June, the left-leaning group sued the DOJ and FBI after they did not hand over records related to Kash Patel’s alleged “excessive alcohol consumption and unexplained absences” during his tenure at the bureau. The plaintiff filed multiple Freedom of Information Act requests before filing the lawsuit.
Democracy Forward is involved in several other legal cases against the Trump administration, including those related to voting rights and election integrity. These types of cases are expected to be a core focus of Cooney and Gaston’s work at the organization.
“Our promise to the American people remains: we will use all the tools our democracy provides to protect the rights of people and our Constitution,” Perryman said. “Our launch of a new anti-corruption practice will enable us to do this as threats to our elections and to the people escalate in the coming months and years.”
Cooney and Gaston are challenging their firings from the DOJ, arguing they were unlawful.
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After their departures from the DOJ last year, Cooney and Gaston launched their own private law firm in Washington, D.C.
Apart from practicing law, Cooney previously ran as a Democrat for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District until the state’s new congressional map, which would have heavily favored Democrats, was tossed. The former candidate said he was “disappointed” in the Virginia Supreme Court’s redistricting decision.
