From DOJ to Ballot Box: The Rise of Lawfare Candidates

RealClearInvestigations ^ | 5 May, 2026 | Julie Kelly

[MtnClimber]

One of the beneficiaries of Virginia’s aggressive attempt to gerrymander the state for Democratic advantage could be a former federal prosecutor whose campaign for Congress hinges on his efforts to use the law to target President Trump and his supporters.

When a slim majority of Virginia voters gave the legislature authority last month to create congressional districts that could give Democrats a 10-1 advantage, J.P. Cooney cheered the outcome in a message on social media, boasting that the new district he was running in had been drawn “expressly for the purpose of standing up to Donald Trump’s and MAGA’s corruption.”

J.P. Cooney is hoping to ride the anti-Trump credentials he accrued as a federal prosecutor to Congress. LinkedIn

Although the fate of Virginia’s 7th Congressional District remains unclear – a state judge immediately blocked the measure, and the issue is expected to end up before the Supreme Court – Cooney’s candidacy represents a small but growing wave of former prosecutors who are running on their anti-Trump bona fides. So far, at least two other former Justice Department officials are seeking office by touting their work against the president, his supporters, and his current administration. All are running as Democrats.

To their supporters, these candidates represent a principled stand against what they see as the lawless excesses of the Trump administration. To many Republicans, the entry of supposedly neutral federal prosecutors into the brass knuckle world of politics confirms their suspicions that the DOJ is filled with partisans who used their power to target the president and the MAGA movement in general.

Ryan Crosswell, who is running for Congress as a Democrat in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, resigned from his position as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York last year

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TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: demagogicparty; democrats; domesticenemies; elections; insurrectionists; jpcooney; lawfare; tds; virginia

[MtnClimber]

These leftists would likely not be elected in any numbers except for gerrymandered districts.

[WhiteHatBobby0701]

Elitists who are working the Hakim for President campaign to change the country fundamentally where the President is elected by 435 people.

[Gay State Conservative]

later

[wintertime]

Re: “a slim majority of Virginia voters “

My conclusion: The election was stolen.

[HYPOCRACY]

And massive fraud.

[pepsi_junkie]

Lawfare was what ended the Roman republic and turned it into a dictatorial empire. Specifically, the Senate uniparty decided to declare Julius Caesar a traitor because they didn't like his expanding populist following and demanded he return from campaign in Gual to stand trial (a show trial, the outcome certain). Caesar did the one unthinkable thing - he came back but be brought his army with him and took over as Dictator for Life. And that was the end, Caesar's heir Augustus was successful as first emperor by letting the Senators pretend to be in charge while he ruled totally but in less showy way than Caesar. Later ones stopped that pretense and were just openly dictatorial.

Lawfare did it, and it did it to democracy in Greece too, to some extent. It's a corrosive end-game move.

[wintertime]

p

[sauropod]

Noted.