CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Zoe Lofgren

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

ACOSTA: It's been over 10 months since rioters stormed the Capitol and the House Select Committee investigating the attacks says it has issued 35 subpoenas and interviewed over 200 witnesses so far. But with much of the work taking place behind closed doors what can we expect next?

Let's bring in a member of the January 6th Committee, Democratic Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of California.

Congresswoman, thank you so much for making time for us this afternoon. Help us out a little bit here. Can you provide any specifics about who these 200 people are that you've interviewed? I'm not asking for names, you know, dates of birth and Social Security numbers, but can you give us a little bit of context?

REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): Yes. Many of them are people who were in the administration during the former president's term who have information that they want to give to us, as well as people involved in the events leading up to the 6th, and they want to voluntarily give information.

You know, we're putting the pieces together. It's painstaking. And -- but it's thorough. And we hope when the process is completed, that we will have a very reliable and complete picture of the events that led up to that terrible day.

ACOSTA: And can you say a former White House staffers have testified? Trump campaign staffers? The staff of the former vice president Mike Pence? All of the above?

LOFGREN: Well, maybe not that specific, but let me say certainly there have been people, part of the Trump administration who have spoken to us and provided important insights that have led us to further questions. Many people are coming in voluntarily. Some we're going to have to subpoena and have in some cases, there will be more subpoenas. Some need a subpoena, you know, to give cover for coming in and then there are also third parties who might have information.

For example, we are following the money to find out who paid for it. That's an important element of following the money trail and that's not always just testimony. It's documents.

ACOSTA: Yes. I want to ask you about that in just a second, but your committee blasted former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows for refusing to say whether he used a private cell phone on January 6th or where his text messages are. Can you give us some context on that? Does the committee have information that he destroyed devices? Deleted messages?

LOFGREN: Well, you know, he has an obligation to come here and give testimony to the committee under law. He gave a very vague sort of absolute immunity. He doesn't have to come in and testify because the former president and he spoke. Well, there's a lot of questions that we have for Mark Meadows that have nothing to do with his conversations with the former president. Some of them have to do with his use of his -- potential use of a private cell phone and e-mail, and what happened to those records.

As you know, we are pursuing records from the National Archives which scoop up all the presidential records after the term of a president. We don't know that everything has been captured. We'd like to ask him about that. But there are other conversations that he had with people other than the president relating to the events leading up to this. He has to come in and tell us. He can't just say I don't want to.

ACOSTA: Right.

LOFGREN: And if he thinks that he has a claim of privilege, he has to assert that question by question. For example, putting executive privilege to one side. If you, you know, the Fifth Amendment says you don't have to testify against yourself. But you can't just say that blanket. You have to go question by question on that point.

[16:25:07]

ACOSTA: Right. And -- but I guess just to button up that subject, are there concerns that you have or others on the committee, that they might have that Meadows destroyed evidence?

LOFGREN: I don't want to -- it would be unfair of me to say that. But let me just say we would like to know about his use of a private cell phone and what happened to that cell phone and whether those records have been captured by the National Archives as the law requires.

ACOSTA: And back to the money trail, Pro Publica recently published a report outlining text messages from Donald Trump Jr.'s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, where she appears to brag about raising millions of dollars for the January 6th rally before the insurrection. Guilfoyle's attorney says the messages were taken out of context and denies she raised money for the January 6th rally. Has the committee been given those text messages and if not, do you want to see them?

LOFGREN: Let me just say this. I'm not going to get into, at this point, to what evidence we have secured so far and what we're still seeking, but I will say this. It is possible to follow a money trail. We have a whole team of investigators that is following the money trail and we believe we have a very high chance of actually determining who paid for what and I think that's an important thing for people to know.

ACOSTA: And Steve Bannon, as you know, just pleaded not guilty to contempt of Congress for refusing to appear before the January 6th Committee. Let's play a little bit of what he said about his indictment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE BANNON, FORMER TRUMP CHIEF STRATEGIST: This is going to be the misdemeanor from hell for Merrick Garland, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden. Joe Biden ordered Merrick Garland to prosecute me from the White House lawn when we got off Marine One. And we're going to do -- we're going to go on the offense. We're tired of playing defense. We're going to go on the offense on this and stand by.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: He said stand by. Some phraseology that may ring a bell for some of our viewers. Do you see some of that language as a threat?

LOFGREN: Certainly. He is a very bellicose individual and certainly apparently thinks he's above the law. The Department of Justice felt otherwise as did the committee. He's not permitted in the American system of justice to just say I don't want to answer any questions. I don't have to. The law applies to all of us. To the former president. To Mr. Bannon. To me. To you. And there's no special elite that is excused from complying with the law.

ACOSTA: All right. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, as always, we appreciate your time. Thanks for coming on this afternoon. We appreciate it.

LOFGREN: You bet.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source