J.P. Cooney, ex-Trump prosecutor in Jack Smith's office, is running for Congress
Source: NBC News
Feb. 11, 2026, 9:05 AM EST / Updated Feb. 11, 2026, 9:56 AM EST
A former deputy to ex-special counsel Jack Smith, J.P. Cooney, announced Wednesday morning that he is launching a congressional bid in Virginia. "I don't want my children, friends, or community to have any doubt about where I stand in this moment," Cooney said in a post on LinkedIn. "Today, I am announcing my candidacy for Congress in Virginia's proposed new Seventh District."
Cooney shared an article from The New York Times, which first reported his election bid, and said he was running as a Democrat.
In his time working with Smith, Cooney served as "a lead prosecutor in both criminal prosecutions of President Trump for obstruction of justice and conspiracy," his LinkedIn account says, referring to the federal indictments of the then-former president on charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and alleged mishandling of classified documents. Days into President Donald Trump's second term, the Justice Department fired the lawyers in the special counsel's office, including Cooney.
Cooney is running in a proposed new congressional district that would stretch from Arlington to rural parts of the state. The district would lean blue, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, which indicated that more than 58% of people in the proposed district supported Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, in last year's elections. The Democratic-led redistricting effort in Virginia, as well as other blue states, came in response to other mid-decade efforts by Republicans to redraw their state maps
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/jp-cooney-trump-jack-smith-prosecutor-running-for-congress-virginia-rcna258505
= new reply since forum marked as read
