Page:CTRL0000034600 - Transcribed Interview of Richard Peter Donoghue, (Oct. 1, 2021).pdf/130

130 And the President said, "Fine. I'm not going to fire him then, but when his resignation comes in tomorrow, it's accepted immediately. Tomorrow's his last day as U.S. attorney." And Pat said, "Fine. We'll deal with that later" and, sort of, took it off the table.

Uh-huh.

And then the President said, "What do you know about Bobby Christine?" Bobby Christine was the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Georgia. I was surprised at the question. I didn't know where it was going. I said, "Bobby Christine is an excellent U.S. attorney." He said, "Yes, that's what I've heard. I want Bobby Christine to run the Northern District of Georgia."

I said, "Mr. President, Bobby Christine is already running the Southern District of Georgia. B.J. will have a first assistant. When he leaves, the first assistant will step up and be the U.S. attorney." He said, "No. I want Bobby Christine to do it, because if he is really good the way people say, maybe he'll do the job."

And then he yelled for one of the administrative assistants to get Bobby Christine on the phone. They did in very short order. Bobby ended up on the phone. He was clearly confused as to what was going on.

The President said, "Bobby, this is President Trump. I'm sitting here with Rich, Jeff, and some other people. I want to know, are you able to run the Northern District of Georgia? Because B.J. Pak's going to be leaving."

And Bobby was clearly confused and said, "Mr. President, I can do whatever is asked in that regard." He said, "Great, Rich will call you later and explain everything" and hung up. And that was that.

So that was left as: B.J. was resigning the next day, his resignation would be accepted same day, and Bobby would take over the Northern District of Georgia for the