EXCLUSIVE: Jack Smith's Minion is Running for Congress, Faces Possible Misconduct Probe

Washington D.C. attorney Joseph “J.P.” Cooney thinks he belongs in Congress, but a legal watchdog group believes he should be investigated for rules violations based on potential federal crimes for his role in the bogus Biden-era Arctic Frost targeting President Donald Trump in the 2024 election.

The Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) has filed complaints with the Virginia State Bar and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility, calling for investigations on Cooney to determine the full scope of his involvement and if appropriate, administer bar discipline.

Cooney was deputy special counsel for Arctic Frost, led by Special Counsel Jack Smith. He was the apparent mastermind behind the strategy of using Department of Justice (DOJ) subpoenas to improperly access phone and bank records and other information on Trump, members of Congress, and other conservatives, and then hiding their existence, according to the complaint.

Now Cooney is running as a Democrat in Virginia’s maybe-Congressional District 7—Virginia is in the middle of a special election that aims to gerrymander its districts to be more Democratic friendly. The district Cooney hopes to run does not exist yet. Early voting is ongoing; election day is April 21.

Media Ground Cover

Just as propaganda press was complicit in selling Arctic Frost to the public through hundreds of articles legitimizing the debunked investigation, it now bolsters Cooney’s campaign by mischaracterizing his role.

Axios described Cooney only as a “former federal prosecutor who helped investigate President Trump,” never mentioning the overreach of that investigation.  

Cooney himself is bragging about the debunked investigation, hoping to excite low information voters, and whining that Trump fired him.

I prosecuted the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, and then Donald Trump himself.

One week after he took office again, he fired me.

Now I’m running for Congress to defend our democracy and restore the rule of law. pic.twitter.com/IcSAOlDxZU

— J.P. Cooney (@cooneycongress) March 19, 2026

"The mainstream media told the American public for four years that Jack Smith and his staff were career non-partisan prosecutors. Now Cooney, Smith's former top deputy, is running for Congress as a Democrat using his political targeting of President Trump as his chief credential," CASA Director James Fitzpatrick Told Restoration News. "Cooney and Smith's failed attempt to politically prosecute President Trump and their effort to monitor and potentially punish the speech of his supporters through 'Arctic Frost' was disgraceful, unprecedented lawfare and a potential violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct in Washington, D.C. and Virginia that should be immediately investigated."

Weaponized Deep State 

The taxpayer-funded Arctic Frost scandal was a politically motivated, Democratic led operation that weaponized the Biden Administration’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), DOJ, and FBI to hunt for evidence they could turn into prosecutions of Trump, and his associates to stop Trump’s 2024 campaign for president.

In 2022, under former President Joe Biden, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped Smith to gather dirt on Trump. Cooney helped Smith investigate Trump’s retention of documents from his first presidency. That led to the outrageous raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. And the investigation into Trumps views on the outcome of the 2020 election. The lawfare was dropped and Smith left his job at the DOJ after Trump was reelected.

The subjects of the Arctic Frost investigation were exclusively Republican. The DOJ combed through 13 million pages of records, fishing for wrongdoing without probable cause, while ignoring real crimes happening in the United States. 

“The records clearly target anyone who spoke about the questionable nature of the 2020 election results, and the potential of challenging those results,” the CASA complaints read. 

“The aim would be to discourage people from questioning election abnormalities in the future. And it would be to create fear of associating with the 'MAGA' movement (associated with President Trump). Accordingly, the Arctic Frost investigation was a potential willful attempt by Jack Smith and his team, under color of law (the DOJ), to deprive conservatives and/or Republicans from speaking about the 2020 election and to prevent President Trump and his segment of the Republican party from future election successes by ostracizing and stigmatizing them. This violated their First Amendment rights. The effort was potential criminal behavior…”

Cooney’s Turn to Be Investigated  

Cooney’s name was mentioned numerous times during a recent Senate hearing titled “Arctic Frost: A Modern Watergate.”  

“Beyond being a partisan in his own right, Smith stacked his team with partisan Democrats, such as J.P. Cooney and Ray Hulser,” Margot Cleveland, counsel at the New Civil Liberties Alliance testified at the hearing.

“Cooney and Hulser served as Smith’s top deputies and in them, we see the clear double standard and political bias that permeated the DOJ and FBI. Before joining Smith’s team, Cooney crafted an outrageous sentencing memorandum that sought to send Trump advisor Roger Stone to prison for seven to nine years.

"Cooney’s sentencing recommendations were so unhinged that then-Attorney General William Barr intervened. Cooney responded by spreading unfounded rumors that Barr and the Acting U.S. Attorney ‘were being improperly political,’ with media leaks furthering that narrative, eventually leading to an Inspector General’s investigation: The IG cleared the Trump Administration but chastised Cooney.”

The CASA complaint holds that Cooney violated ethics standards and he should be disciplined for, “deprivation of rights under color of law,” and for conspiring to intimidate [the targets of the investigation] from the free exercise of their constitution rights.

Government actions that chill speech violate the First Amendment, CASA writes.

“In the case of Cooney, his culpability may be even higher than others involved in the Arctic Frost effort because he pressed for even more investigations against Trump,” says the CASA complaint. “His thirst for punitive – and political – prosecutions against Trump, his associates, and other Republicans should not go unaddressed.

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