(DCNF)—Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California blamed the Department of Justice for delaying the prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump Monday, claiming it was “a huge mistake” that allowed Trump to escape “accountability.”
Special counsel Jack Smith moved to dismiss charges against Trump over his efforts to contest the 2020 election and his handling of classified material Monday. Lofgren bemoaned the fact that Trump was not indicted until 2023, asserting the Select January 6 Committee uncovered evidence of wrongdoing during an appearance on “Chris Jansing Reports.”
“Well, it was a huge mistake. Certainly, the committee found, you know, a lot of evidence without the tools that the Justice Department has that made it clear that Trump was at the center of this wide-ranging conspiracy,” Lofgren told MSNBC host Chris Jansing. “Why the Justice Department delayed until basically our report was done is something I’ve never understood. However, Trump and his lawyers are the masters of delay. So, even had the efforts begun in advance, who knows whether they wouldn’t have been able to drag them out. Justice delayed is, of course, justice denied.”
Smith secured a superseding indictment against Trump almost two months after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trump’s claims of immunity in a case stemming from a previous indictment of the former president over his efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election. Lofgren also took aim at Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who had opposed impeaching Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol building.
“When Mr. Trump was elected president, I think it became clear that this prosecution could not go forward,” Lofgren said. “You know, it’s ironic that the top Republican in the Senate pointed out in the impeachment that he should be prosecuted, that what he did was criminal and that the court should take care of it.”
“Of course, now there is no accountability either using the constitutional method of impeachment or the courts as Mitch McConnell suggested should be the case,” Lofgren claimed. “So, there is no accountability. The conduct was criminal, and we already knew that we had elected somebody who was a criminal because he was convicted multiple times in another case. So that’s where we are in America.”
A Manhattan jury of seven men and five women convicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsification of business records on May 30 in the case which centered around a $130,000 payout to porn star Stormy Daniels as part of a confidentiality agreement.
A grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia handed down indictments Aug. 14, charging Trump and other associates over Trump’s efforts to contest the 2020 election results in that state. Attorneys for former Trump campaign aide Michael Roman filed a motion for Willis’s disqualification on Jan. 8 alleging that Willis, who hired Nathan Wade as a special prosecutor to help probe and prosecute the former president, was in a romantic relationship with him, with a judge later ruling that Wade had to withdraw from the case.
An appeals court cancelled oral arguments on whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified due to the relationship with Wade Nov. 18.
