Page:CTRL0000034600 - Transcribed Interview of Richard Peter Donoghue, (Oct. 1, 2021).pdf/153

153 And I don't think DOD did anything with that. I think it was just—they took it under advisement.

So let me just understand. So he called you to see if DOJ was following up on the Italy claim?

No, I think—

Or offering—

I think somehow that had worked its way back to DOD. I don't know how. And Kash Patel called me and said, "I heard you were given some information by the chief of staff about this Italy thing. Can you tell me what this is all about?" And I relayed to him what I knew at that point, which was: Chief of staff told us this. I googled the guy. This is what I learned. It really doesn't seem like there's anything to this, but that's up to you guys. And he said, "Oh. Okay, I get it. Thanks." And that was it.

Okay.

Who was your primary DOD contact? Meaning, on your level, to what level did you reach out to anyone over at DOD?

With regard to this, I wasn't really in contact with anyone. I had dealt with the DOD General Counsel and some other people at DOD on different matters that involved the Department and DOD.

But with regard to January 6th preparation, we had this call on the 3rd; we had another call on the 4th. On both of those, General Milley was on the call, the Acting Secretary was on the call. They also ended up on calls on the 6th when I was at the Capitol. So we had some communication at that level.

Back to your notes for that day, it states towards the end, "DOD asked for civilian lead for ops in D.C."

Yes.