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Trump Says Jan. 6 Panel Members Should Be Jailed. South Bay’s Zoe Lofgren Isn’t Worried

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A close-up photo of an older white woman with blonde hair wearing glasses and a blue suit jacket. Two blurry microphones can be seen in front of her.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, (D-San José), who sat on the House committee that investigated the Capitol attack, said she’s not asking President Biden for a pardon. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

South Bay Rep. Zoe Lofgren said Tuesday that she’s not asking President Joe Biden for a pardon after President-elect Donald Trump suggested that members of the Jan. 6 committee she sat on should be jailed.

In an interview with KQED, Lofgren said she’s not worried by Trump’s remarks about the House committee that investigated the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and called him its “central cause.”

“I guess my first reaction was a question of whether he’s ever read the United States Constitution,” she said. “I’m scared for the country that we would have a lawless president suggesting things that are completely prohibited by the Constitution be done. But I believe in the Constitution. And I think we have a judicial branch that will make sure that the Constitution is enforced on that.”

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Trump made the comments to NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “Honestly, they should go to jail,” he said of the committee members, though he added that he would not direct the Department of Justice to prosecute them.

The president-elect also said he would consider pardoning the more than 1,500 defendants charged in the Jan. 6 attacks on his first day in office.

Lofgren said she’s disappointed that Trump plans to “reward criminals.”

“These were individuals who viciously assaulted police officers, maimed them in a violent attack. So I was not surprised by Trump’s comments, but certainly disappointed by his efforts to reward criminals and to try and criminalize non-criminal activity on the part of Congress,” she said.

Lofgren added that she encourages Americans to read the committee’s full report or “go to the Department of Justice’s website and read the case files of the violent crimes committed by the rioters that Trump now says he plans to pardon.”

But she said she has not sought a pardon from Biden.

That’s up to the president if he thinks it’s appropriate and he can do it,” she said. “We did nothing wrong. Matter of fact, we did a lot that was right. But if he thinks it’s important to prevent harassment, then he can use his good judgment. I will say I’m not seeking it.”

Lofgren said the Constitution already provides members of Congress “much broader protection than any pardon,” both civilly and criminally, but that it may be worth considering preemptive pardons for people who are not elected officials.

“Certainly, there are individuals who don’t have the protection of the speech or debate clause that will obviously, if we’re to believe what Trump and his nominees say, are going to be harassed and should not be,” she said.

Last week, on the eve of being sworn in as California’s newest U.S. senator, Adam Schiff — another member of the Jan. 6 committee — told KQED he opposes preemptive pardons, even if he believes Trump will “abuse his authority” or try to.

“But I just don’t like the precedent of it,” he said. “I didn’t like it when Trump talked about doing that on his way out. And I don’t favor President Biden doing it either.”

Lofgren said she doesn’t know Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general Trump has named as his pick for attorney general. But she called his pick to head the FBI, Kash Patel, “completely unqualified.”

“The intemperate comments that he’s made indicate his lack of balance and his lack of adherence to the rule of law,” she said.

Yet Lofgren, who is the ranking Democratic member on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, said she does hope to work across the aisle in that committee and other areas. She noted that because of the GOP’s slim House majority — just two votes — they will likely need Democrats to pass legislation.

“They will need Democratic votes, and we will give those votes if we have bills that also meet our priorities. So we shall see how this goes,” she said. “Our goal is to stand up for our constituents and to stand up for the American people in every regard.”

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