CNN Newsroom: Interview With Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) About Trump's Legal Jeopardy

Interview

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Well, actually, I was surprised about the New Mexico inquiry because that was not on the committee's radar.

But certainly, the ex-president went to great lengths to try and get the votes thrown out in various states, including Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and the like. And it looks like the special counsel is pursuing those problematic behaviors. And it sounds like he's putting together a case along the lines of the criminal referrals that the committee made to the Department of Justice. So it looks like he's hard at work.

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Well, I don't know. But certainly the false statements charge is important. He tried to substitute fake electors for the real electors. There was a -- we indicated a conspiracy to defraud the United States. That requires a corrupt intent. And I know he's been talking to witnesses about the ex-president's state of mind.

But certainly, all of these efforts to subvert the vote is connected with the potential criminal charges that I don't know whether the special prosecutor will indict but it certainly looks like he's putting the evidence together to do so.

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Well, it could be. You know, there is a need to show a corrupt intent when it comes to the potential conspiracy charge. But certainly, the January 6th Committee came up with very large amount of evidence, that the president knew he'd lost the election. Certainly General Milley indicated that he'd said that he knew he lost the election. So I don't know what these two witnesses have said but there's certainly a lot of evidence that he knew that he lost.

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Well, that's his M.O. He likes to delay. And I think in this case, it looks like he's hoping that he wins the election and then can pardon himself because I think he has substantial criminal exposure in that case and others. The idea that you wouldn't set a date for trial, that's not what the statute requires. And I really can't see why this could not be tried prior to the election. Hopefully in this calendar year. I mean, a speedy trial is important for justice. And that's not just for the defendant but also for the prosecution. We need to bring this to a head and reach a conclusion one way or the other.

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Well, not really. I mean, we told the truth. We put together the evidence. We made referrals for criminal statutes because we felt the evidence was there to convict the ex-president. But that charging decision isn't through Congress. That's for the Department of Justice. And the special prosecutor has to weigh the weight of the evidence. Does he believe that these charges can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt? That's not something the committee or Congress properly can do. Only the prosecutor can do that.

We're satisfied that we told the truth. We found the evidence and the ex-president was at the center of a multifaceted, wide-ranging conspiracy to overthrow the election and upend the Constitution. That much is clear and I think the public should know it.

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We did the best we could and I think we gave a straight story on what happened for the American public to look at. That's the Congress' job, the committee's job. The prosecutor has a different job of course. We've always respected that.

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Take care.

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