Member of Jan. 6 House Select Committee addresses why they haven’t asked to speak with Trump

Stephen Proctor
·2 min read
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Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who sits on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol and former President Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, appeared Sunday on CNN Newsroom With Pamela Brown, where the California Democrat spoke about why the committee has yet to call the former president for questioning.

“We haven’t decided that yet,” Lofgren said. “We have a lot of investigations underway, and that is a weighty decision that we have discussed but have not decided on.”

Lofgren explained that one reason the committee hasn’t sought out an interview with Trump is because, in her mind, he can’t be trusted to tell the truth. A report from January 2021 stated that Trump told roughly 30,000 “mistruths” during his four years in office.

“The former president has a veracity problem that is well known,” Lofgren said. “You know, there used to be ‘How many falsehoods does he say in any one sentence?’ So I think there has to be a weighing of how valuable the evidence, or testimony, would actually be.”

Lofgren also said that Trump’s litigious history has been a factor in the decision not to attempt to question him.

“He is very litigious, and he would tie the committee up in court for as long as he possibly could,” Lofgren said, “and since there are various privileges that a former president can assert, even if they don't hold up in the end, that can take a very long time.”

Lofgren went on to say that based on the testimony the committee has already received, along with the mountain of documents in its possession, including several hundred that Trump tried to stop the National Archives from sending, they may not need to speak with Trump.

“The huge amount of documents that we are receiving from others in his inner circle, from the national archives,” Lofgren said, “is starting to paint a rather vivid picture, as far as I'm concerned, about what happened, and when that picture is put together, we will reveal it to the American public in a series of hearings.”

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