Two former Justice Department prosecutors who once served on special counsel Jack Smith’s team investigating and charging President Donald Trump have launched a new law firm after being dismissed from their positions. According to a CBS News report released Wednesday, the pair aims to continue their work against corruption from outside the federal government.
Molly Gaston and J.P. Cooney were both key members of Smith’s legal team, which handled two major cases against Trump — one involving alleged election interference following the 2020 election and another focused on his removal of classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago estate. Those cases were dropped after Trump won reelection in 2024. Under long-standing Justice Department policy, sitting presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted while in office.
Following Trump’s return to the White House in January, both Gaston and Cooney were among the prosecutors dismissed during what CBS described as a “Trump administration purge” targeting staff connected to Smith and the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section. That division, created in the wake of Watergate, has been responsible for handling corruption cases for nearly five decades.
Now, Gaston and Cooney are leading a new venture: an independent law firm bearing their names. Their goal, the report said, is to continue much of the work they once did at the Justice Department by pursuing corruption and integrity cases from the private sector.
Their move comes as the Justice Department’s public corruption unit has reportedly been gutted. CBS News cited Justice Connection, a group representing former government employees, which estimated the Public Integrity Section now has only two full-time attorneys — down from dozens in recent years.
Gaston and Cooney told CBS they also plan to provide private legal representation to individuals under investigation, including those involved in congressional inquiries. The attorneys said they see their firm as both a necessity and a response to the erosion of institutional accountability within government.
“Institutional relationships are crumbling right now,” Gaston told CBS. “It presents an opportunity and a need for the kind of services that we will provide to impartially and independently give advice and guidance.”
Their decision to launch the firm highlights growing concern among legal experts and former officials about the future of public integrity enforcement in Washington. As federal oversight mechanisms weaken, the work of independent lawyers like Gaston and Cooney may become one of the few remaining checks on government corruption.