“He Can’t Erase It”: Lawmakers React to Special Counsel’s Report on Trump and Jan. 6

Members of the House Select Committee investigating the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attacks are weighing in on special counsel Jack Smith’s final report, published this week by the Justice Department.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) praised the committee’s work, which she said “pointed out Donald Trump’s criminality” in the events surrounding the 2020 election and the Capitol attack. “He’s trying to rewrite January 6,” Lofgren said.

“He can’t erase it. What he did is obvious.” She encouraged skeptics to watch the extensive footage of “the violence he initiated.” Smith’s report concluded that the evidence met the standard necessary for indictment, a finding that Lofgren said aligned with her committee’s conclusions.

“Smith outlined the evidence he has that Trump was guilty of a crime. That’s not new; the committee found the same thing,” she said. However, she noted that the committee’s role was limited. “There’s nothing to be done with the report because we can’t prosecute the president” under existing regulations.

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), who has yet to read the full 174-page report, said he expects its conclusions to mirror the committee’s findings. He emphasized the report’s importance for historical records and accountability.

“That’s why I’ve advocated for the grand jury transcripts of the Mike Pence interview in addition to all of the special counsel reports,” Aguilar said. “The American people deserve to know what Donald Trump did on Jan. 6, leading up to Jan. 6, and after.”

Both Aguilar and Lofgren dismissed a Punchbowl News report suggesting that Jan. 6 committee members were seeking pardons from the White House out of fear Trump might target them. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I stand by the work that we did,” Aguilar stated, citing the Constitution’s “Speech and Debate Clause,” which protects members performing official duties.

Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, expressed frustration over the delay in Trump’s indictment. “It should have come back ages ago,” she said. Balint argued that the timing undermined public understanding of Trump’s actions.

“This is so profoundly sad and scary. What he did, all the things he tried to do to overturn a free and fair election, and so many of his accomplices are still sitting with me on the floor,” she said.

Balint concluded with a sharp critique: “The guy literally tried to overturn a free and fair election. He had slates of fake electors. He tried to hand stuff to [Mike] Pence on the floor! And her emails.”