Ousted Justice Dept. attorneys who prosecuted Trump open new law firm targeting corruption
Source: CBS News
October 22, 2025 / 7:30 PM EDT
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.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ousted-doj-attorneys-who-prosecuted-trump-new-law-firm/
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