Two Trump impeachment trials later, Rep. Zoe Lofgren will help lead hearing on his Jan. 6 actions
LA TimesRep. Zoe Lofgren was at work on Capitol Hill each of the four times Congress moved to impeach a president in modern U.S. history, first as a staffer and later as representative — the only member with such experience. In a video deposition shown by the panel Thursday night, Barr said that he told Trump he didn’t agree with his assertion of voter fraud, and that after election day he spoke multiple times with the former president and “made it clear I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the president was bullshit.” When Barr interviewed with the committee, Lofgren said, “he made clear that his motivation was not to coordinate a finding of fraud, but simply to make sure that allegations were investigated in a timely way.” Report after report of alleged voter fraud made to Barr’s office were never substantiated, she said. It was Lofgren’s 14 years of experience serving on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors prior to her time on Capitol Hill that first gave her insight into election administration, knowledge that she said has continued to serve her in helping lead the investigation into the Jan. 6 violence and Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud. “And I know that that’s true.” In addition to her role on the Jan. 6 select panel, Lofgren is also chairwoman of the House Administration Committee, which oversees the Capitol Police and has held several hearings scrutinizing how department leaders handled the attack and the security failures that allowed more than 1,000 people to storm the building. As she prepares to present her case Monday evening, Lofgren said she hoped that Americans walk away from watching the Jan. 6 hearings with “the truth of what happened here.” Then-President Trump “didn’t like losing, but he knew he lost, and he lied about it,” Lofgren said.