Law and Order Has Left Chat: Jack Smith's Deputy on the Lawlessness of Congress
The Lincoln Project
The Lincoln Project
4.6 • 9.1K Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The rule of law isn’t supposed to be optional in America — but lately Washington seems to have forgotten that. This week, Rick Wilson sits down with JP Cooney, former Deputy to Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, to talk about the growing crisis of lawlessness and why restoring accountability starts with fixing Congress itself. After years inside the Department of Justice working on some of the most consequential federal investigations in modern history, Cooney is stepping into the arena, running for Congress in Virginia’s 7th District in 2026 to bring seriousness, backbone, and respect for the rule of law back to Washington. Rick and JP break down how Congress lost the plot, why consequences in government have become optional, and why the next generation of leaders needs to end the chaos, restore law and order, and rebuild trust in American institutions before the damage becomes permanent.
•
•
•
•
•
You can find J.P. Cooney on X @cooneycongress, and on Bluesky @cooneyforcongress.bsky.social. Check out his campaign website, at www.cooneyforcongress.com.
Rick Wilson is on X at @TheRickWilson, on Bluesky at @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and you can check out Rick's Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. You can check out more of LP's work at www.lincolnproject.us and on X at @ProjectLincoln.
Go to www.superpower.com and use code ‘LINCOLN’ for 20% off your membership. #ad
Go to www.quince.com/lincoln for free shipping + 365-day returns. #ad
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | We can agree, right? Government works best and works for the people when its elected representatives |
| 0:07.1 | actually stand up to do the job to protect hardworking people who do play by the rules and play by |
| 0:12.6 | the rules themselves, right? Right. And that's where this Republican Congress has completely |
| 0:17.1 | fallen down because it is decided to elevate one man above its country and |
| 0:24.0 | their constitutional obligations. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well-trained, |
| 0:30.4 | well-equipped in battle-hearted. There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. There is the |
| 0:36.4 | United States of America. |
| 0:40.8 | Good night and good luck. |
| 0:43.0 | Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Lincoln Project podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in today. |
| 0:47.0 | I am your host, as always, Rick Wilson. And I am delighted to be joined today by a guy you should know and a guy I think you're going to get to know. |
| 0:54.8 | It's J.P. Cooney. He is a former federal prosecutor. He worked with Jack Smith's team on a number of |
| 1:00.7 | these major public corruption cases involving you know who. But now he is running for Congress |
| 1:07.0 | in the 7th District of Virginia. And so I wanted to have a chat with him today to talk |
| 1:12.3 | about not only his campaign, but a lot of the things that that, that, that, that I think are |
| 1:17.5 | issues that are going to really affect the future of the country. And the biggest one of those |
| 1:21.6 | basically is public corruption, public integrity. And how we're going to handle that, not only |
| 1:26.0 | from the legal side through |
| 1:28.8 | through a hopefully someday non-corrupt DOJ but from the legislative side which is he's |
| 1:34.7 | going to be a guy who goes into Congress with a vast amount of experience in this and so I want |
| 1:40.4 | to I want to say first off JP thank you you're a guy who prosecuted the Proud Boys, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, a lot of the |
| 1:48.6 | Maga greatest hits guys, which is one of the reasons they fired you. |
| 1:52.6 | So tell us your story of your time as a federal prosecutor first, and then I want to jump in |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Lincoln Project, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Lincoln Project and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.