Top investigator in Biden-era election probe wanted to tear key constitutional right away from lawmakers

Newly surfaced records indicate that JP Cooney, who served as principal deputy prosecutor to former special counsel Jack Smith, favored eliminating the constitutional provision that shields members of Congress from prosecution over their legislative work. In a 2021 exchange first obtained by the Washington Examiner, Cooney told fellow prosecutor Molly Gaston, who later joined Smith's team, that he supported repealing the Speech or Debate Clause but that, failing that, prosecutors had to work within it and its established interpretation, according to Fox News.

The clause is meant to keep the executive branch from pressuring lawmakers with the threat of legal action. Smith and his staff led the inquiry into attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, told Fox News Digital that Cooney showed contempt for the separation of powers. Grassley contends that Cooney and Smith then breached the safeguard by covertly acquiring phone toll records and text messages belonging to dozens of lawmakers. He also called the team's conduct a partisan assault on the Constitution.

Cooney's stance came up at Smith's Tuesday hearing on Capitol Hill, where Grassley asked what instructions Smith gave his staff for handling Speech or Debate and attorney-client material.

Summarized by PolitiKool from Fox News’s reporting. Read the full story at Fox News →