Jan. 6 committee member Lofgren weighs in on unsealed Trump evidence

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• Amna Nawaz:

  That poll was conducted before the unsealing of a court filing that offers new insight into the events of January 6.

  Representative Zoe Lofgren was one of the lawmakers tasked with investigating that day and what led to it. She joins us now from San Jose.

  Congresswoman, welcome back to the "News Hour."

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA):

  Happy to be here.

• Amna Nawaz:

  So, before we turn to that court filing, I just want to ask you about what Lisa Desjardins was just reporting from our poll, that some 58 percent of adults say they are concerned there will be voter fraud in this election. What's your reaction to that and what kind of impact do you think that can have on the election?

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren:

  Well, it's unfortunate that so many people are believing the lies that the former president has been spouting now, along with other Republicans, for quite some time.

  Voter fraud is vanishingly small in this country. I mean, if you investigate it, you get maybe a handful, and they're usually in city council races. It's not ever been a factor. But if people believe that it is, maybe they won't vote. Maybe they think it won't make a difference.

  So that's disappointing. And I wish that Trump would stop lying about this, and I certainly wish my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would tell the truth as well.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Let's turn now to that latest news from the filing that was unsealed yesterday that's related to the election interference case against former President Trump that's brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

  It's worth pointing out that the January 6 Committee you served on did pull together many of those details. But, of course, Department of Justice had subpoena power, where you did not.

  So I'm just curious, in going through the filing, did anything stand out to you as a previously critical missing piece in the puzzle to putting together understanding what happened on that day?

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren:

  One thing did strike me, which was the direct communication between then-President Trump and Steve Bannon.

  I have long believed that Bannon knew everything and was up to his eyeballs in the plot. He refused to respond to our subpoena and, of course, is in prison right now for contempt of Congress. But, obviously, the Department of Justice was able to get information we were not able to get.

  It doesn't surprise me because I think all the indications were there, but we didn't have the direct evidence that they have.

• Amna Nawaz:

  What about some of the previously, well, they were disclosed, but they weren't confirmed details about conversations between then-Vice President Pence and President Trump? What stood out to you about that?

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren:

  Well, we had a pretty good idea what had gone on. We knew that he had refused to respond to Trump's pressure to overturn the election.

  We didn't know about the comment that Trump made, so what if Pence gets evacuated? It's a detail, but not a departure for the information that we were able to acquire.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Can I ask you about how the public is taking all of this information in? Because even though there was some really damning evidence laid out across all of the January 6 Committee hearings, the polls are showing that, the further away we get from January 6, the fewer people see it as a threat and fewer people see Donald Trump as bearing any responsibility.

  There was a poll from December of 2023 that found just 53 percent of people thought he was responsible for the events that day, and that's down from 60 percent two years earlier. Do you think that this case in any way is already or could change people's mind?

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren:

  I have no idea, but it's about prosecuting a crime. It's not about a political campaign.

  I do think that the Republican Party overall, not 100 percent, but most of them in the House are lying about that day. They were evacuated, the same as me. They saw the damage done to the Capitol, the police officers who were injured. They knew what happened. But they're spinning it as if it was something else.

  And people — we live in a country that is divided along partisan lines, and people who are registered Republicans tend to trust the Republican elected officials. And when they're being lied to, that can lead to very bad results.

• Amna Nawaz:

  As you have probably seen, former President Trump has called the filing pure election interference. He called the unsealing of the documents weaponization of the government.

  And I know some will look at this filing release and they will point out that it happened just the day before your fellow committee member, Republican Liz Cheney, hits the campaign trail with Vice President Kamala Harris, and they will see politics at play, despite the fact that there's no evidence of that.

  Does the timing of all of this in any way, the optics of it make you uncomfortable?

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren:

  Well, the timing is because of Trump. He has done everything he could to delay this through frivolous appeals and on and on and on. That's why this wasn't done a long time ago.

  So for him now to complain, it's kind of like the guy who murdered his parents and now is complaining he's an orphan. It's — it's really incredible.

• Amna Nawaz:

  But for people who will see politics in this process, what's your message to them?

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren:

  Well, it's not true. The court has nothing to do with politics. They just call balls and strikes.

  There's a — I wish this had happened a long time ago, honestly. I wish the — that Trump had not delayed this so long. But here we are. It's unfortunate that the Department of Justice didn't start this earlier. But even with that late start, it was delayed in an unseemly way by Trump himself.

  And there's nothing to be done about that now.

• Amna Nawaz:

  That is Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren joining us tonight from California.

  Congresswoman, thank you for your time. Good to see you.

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren:

  You bet. Good to see you.