Page:CTRL0000034600 - Transcribed Interview of Richard Peter Donoghue, (Oct. 1, 2021).pdf/14

14 people did because, under Federal personnel law, if the person holding the title is still in the Department, you don't use the acting title. So, although a lot of people refer to me in emails and elsewhere as the Acting DAG, I didn't actually use that title myself.

I see. But, in effect, you functioned as the Acting Deputy Attorney General even if Federal personnel laws didn't allow you to use that title. Is that fair?

Yes. That's correct.

Okay. And then you—I'm going to come back, obviously, to a lot of detail about what occurred during the time that you were acting as the DAG, even without the title. But I just want to finish with respect to your DOJ career. When did you actually leave the Department?

So I left Washington at the end of January. I was there through the transition. Because I was a career employee as opposed to a political employee, I did not have to leave at the end of the administration, but, of course, that had always been my intent to leave.

I was on detail from the Eastern District of New York to Washington. That detail expired January 31st. I returned to New York. I took leave. I had, you know, many weeks of leave saved up. So I took leave. I did some work in the Eastern District of New York, really just wrapping up cases and records and things like that. And then I ultimately retired in April of this year, April 2021, from the Justice Department.

I see. And then are you currently employed?

No. As I said, I retired in April. I've been in discussions with—took the summer off basically, and I've been in discussions with a number of law firms, and I expect to be starting one in the next few weeks.

Got it. Okay. All right. Let me go back now into a couple of things that happened when you were in that Acting DAG capacity. Is there at the Department,