Page:CTRL0000034600 - Transcribed Interview of Richard Peter Donoghue, (Oct. 1, 2021).pdf/10

10 Senate-confirmed?

Correct.

Okay. The big priorities when you were U.S. attorney, do you have a couple of highlights of significant prosecutions or issue priorities that you pursued?

A big priority for us for a long time has been violent crime. We have a significant MS-13 problem in the Eastern District of New York. There were a lot of MS-13 murders in 2014, '15, and 116, and so we focused on those a lot. Thankfully, we were able to drive those numbers down significantly.

Another big issue was opioids. As with the rest of the country, we're suffering through the opioid epidemic. So we're dealing with that. And we also had a number of what I guess people consider to be high-profile cases, such as the prosecution of El Chapo, the cartel leader, who was arrested well before my time in the Eastern District but went to trial while I was the U.S. attorney.

All right. So being U.S. attorney is a great, great job, and you left it to come to Washington to serve in the DAGTs office. Tell us, A, what was the job in Washington that lured you here from Brooklyn, and why would you leave being U.S. attorney to come to the DAG's office?

Apparently I was not thinking clearly. You are right; being a U.S. attorney is a great job. It's everyone's dream to get to come back to your office and do that, and I was very lucky to have the opportunity to do it. I was involved in things in D.C. from the time I became U.S. attorney.

I think my first month on the job I got a call from Rod Rosenstein, who said that he wanted me to serve on the AGAC, the Attorney General's Advisory Committee. So I was happy to do that. I was participating on the main AGAC committee, as well as several subcommittees. I was the chair of the Terrorism and National Security Subcommittee.