Page:CTRL0000034600 - Transcribed Interview of Richard Peter Donoghue, (Oct. 1, 2021).pdf/172

172 No. We understood, as part of these conversations on the 3rd and the 4th that the Mayor had requested 350 National Guard, that she wanted them to be unarmed and to have no body armor, and that she wanted them positioned at Metro centers and traffic intersections and things like that to free up Metro PD to have more bodies to address other things. And that was fine.

And that was memorialized in the January 12th letter there, that's exhibit 40. Is that right?

Right.

DOJ's stating it was appropriate for the D.C. National Guard to respond. Do you have that?

Yeah.

Okay. Going now to January 4th, exhibit 41 is essentially a suggested press release for DOJ.

Now, it's my understanding that, in searching DOJ's website, the statement was never issued. Do you know why not?

I don't know if it was issued.

Okay.

I just don't know.

In the draft release, or draft press, you state at some point that we anticipate the protests to be peaceful.

Now, at that point you already knew there could be the potential for violence, as you described. Could you just explain the words that you use there for the press release?

Well, we certainly expected American citizens coming to the Capitol to conduct themselves lawfully. So we did expect them to be peaceful. That said, we