Two years ago, longtime federal corruption prosecutor Molly Gaston signed her name to a court filing unlike any before it.
That day, in October 2023, Gaston filed a 32-page motion asking a federal judge to continue limiting public statements of then-former President Trump, who was accused of witness intimidation ahead of a trial in his criminal case for seeking to overturn the 2020 election.
Gaston, who was a lead prosecutor for the trial, knew the case was unprecedented and high-stakes. She did not know how much would change in two years.
She was a member of special counsel Jack Smith’s team, which investigated a pair of criminal cases involving Mr. Trump, including one for election subversion. Gaston and fellow prosecutor J.P. Cooney were part of a prosecutorial unit that submitted hundreds of pages of court filings. Throughout 2023 and 2024, they stood before judges and courtrooms packed with news media for historic proceedings that were immediately recognized as landmark legal moments.
Smith’s two cases against Mr. Trump were dropped when he won reelection in 2024, because under Justice Department policy, sitting presidents are not prosecuted.
Gaston and Cooney, among the most accomplished corruption prosecutors in the Justice Department, would lose their jobs once Mr. Trump took office in January.
They were fired in a Trump administration purge of prosecutors associated with Smith and staff from the Justice Department’s Public Integrity section, which has specialized in corruption cases in the 50 years since Watergate.
The pair of former prosecutors have now embarked on a new chapter, opening a new private law firm, which they hope will fill a void left by the purge.
Their eponymous firm, Gaston and Cooney, will leverage and promote their experience working on Smith’s special counsel cases and offer to help local and state governments investigate public corruption. Gaston and Cooney said the ouster of veteran prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Public Integrity section shifts the burden to local investigators to unearth and uproot public corruption.
Gaston told CBS News, “Institutional relationships are crumbling right now. It presents an opportunity and a need for the kind of services that we will provide to impartially and independently give advice and guidance.”
Cooney said, “Our view is that corruption imposes great harm to communities,” and it incurs “economic costs, intrinsic costs.”
Gaston said, “We think that there is this need and an appetite for this.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Justice Connection, an organization representing former agency employees, told CBS News it estimates the Justice Department’s Public Integrity section has shrunk to just two full time attorneys, down from dozens in recent years.
Gaston and Cooney told CBS News they will also offer private legal services to clients who are the subject of investigations, including in congressional probes. Their work with Smith will be listed in a press release Wednesday announcing the launch of their new firm.
The two defend Smith and the unit’s work, amid a torrent of criticism from Mr. Trump and his allies, who accuse Smith of being politically motivated.
Cooney told CBS News, “We’re immensely proud of the work that we did with Jack Smith and with the body of our work.” He added that they sought to “carry out prosecutions without fear or favor to anyone, to a political party, to a cause, to a wealthy interest, or to our own career prospects.”
Smith himself has maintained a low profile in the nine months since Mr. Trump’s second term began. In public remarks last week at an event with former Justice Department attorney Andrew Weismann, Smith defended the investigations of Trump as righteous and fair.
Cooney and Gaston were both fired by the Trump administration soon after the president was inaugurated. Even as they open their new private law firm, the pair say they are challenging their firings as unlawful, without due process or a specified cause. The pair filed complaints with the Merit System Protections Board.
Gaston told CBS News her firing was “incredibly sad and disappointing and also surprising.”
“Ethical government cannot operate under circumstances where civil servants are terminated simply for doing their jobs and carrying out their responsibilities to the American people,” said Cooney.
Greg Rosen, a former head of the Justice Department’s Capitol Siege section, which prosecuted more than 1,500 Jan. 6 cases, lauded the opening of Gaston and Cooney’s firm. He told CBS News, “It’s hard to imagine two colleagues better suited for the challenge. Their exceptional character and eagerness to engage with both complex and novel legal issues set them apart and promise to make distinctive contributions to the legal field.”
Stacey Young, executive director of Justice Connection, which assists ousted Justice Department attorneys, told CBS News “We desperately need the expertise this new firm is offering. The Justice Department has abdicated its duty to enforce public corruption laws. Without state and local governments filling that void, public officials will have no incentive to treat citizens fairly within the law.”
