Newly uncovered documents reveal that one of former special counsel Jack Smith’s top deputies advocated for repealing a key constitutional protection for lawmakers. "I’m an advocate for repealing the clause but absent that, we’re stuck with it and the way it’s been interpreted," JP Cooney, who served as Smith’s principal deputy prosecutor, wrote in a 2021 exchange first obtained by the Washington Examiner. He was speaking with Molly Gaston, another prosecutor who would go on to join Smith, about the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause.
The Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution protects members of Congress from civil or criminal prosecution stemming from their legislative actions or speech. In theory, it shields the legislative branch from being coerced by the executive branch under threat of prosecution. "Records provided to my office revealed that Jack Smith’s right-hand man, J.P.
Cooney, flaunted his disdain for the Speech or Debate Clause, which protects the separation of powers. Later, Cooney and Smith violated this constitutional safeguard by secretly obtaining toll records and text messages from dozens of members of Congress," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital.
JACK SMITH THRUST BACK INTO SPOTLIGHT AT BLANCHE HEARING OVER EXPOSED SENATORS’ MESSAGES "Jack Smith and his team disgracefully tore up the Constitution throughout his partisan investigation. That’s what happens when runaway Democrat government is in power," Grassley added. Smith and his staff were responsible for investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Cooney’s position on the Speech or Debate Clause was a point of contention during Smith’s Tuesday hearing on Capitol Hill. "When you became Special Counsel, what direction did you give your staff to handle Speech or Debate and Attorney-Client material? Did you issue any directives?
Please explain," Grassley asked Smith, citing Cooney’s support for repealing the clause. "So, with respect to the Speech or Debate Clause, first, we took our obligations seriously under the Speech or Debate Clause. It's, in my view, an important part of the separation of powers," Smith responded.
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