Page:CTRL0000034600 - Transcribed Interview of Richard Peter Donoghue, (Oct. 1, 2021).pdf/131

131 remaining few weeks of the administration.

Did he saying anything more about Bobby Christine and why he thought highly of him or thought that he would do something different than B.J. Pak had done?

No, just that he had heard great things about Bobby. I knew that Bobby was a one-star general in the—I believe it was the Georgia National Guard. And so he had long military history. I know that's something that the President favors. I don't know if that played into his understanding or not.

Uh-huh.

All right. Anything else you remember, Mr. Donoghue, before the last 15 minutes, when he says, "Okay, I'm not going to do it, I'm not going to make a change"? Any other name come up, subject matter discussed, or anything else that's noteworthy about the 2-1/2-hour meeting?

There was a lot there. It was certainly a rollercoaster ride of a meeting, so I'm sure there are things I'm not remembering. I think at some point he had asked about names of other U.S. attorneys. You know, what do you think of this guy? What do you think of that guy? And I just said: Good U.S. attorneys, they're solid, they're doing their job.

Uh-huh.

When he announced his decision, did he give a reason why he was not going to follow through with the change to put Clark in as the Acting Attorney General?

So, in about the last 15 minutes, after he'd heard everyone out extensively, he said, "All right, I've heard everyone, and we're not going to do this."

He looked at Jeff Clark. He said, "I appreciate your willingness to do it. I appreciate you being willing to suffer the abuse. But the reality is, you're not going to get anything done. These guys are going to quit. Everyone else is going to resign. It's