Page:CTRL0000034600 - Transcribed Interview of Richard Peter Donoghue, (Oct. 1, 2021).pdf/202

202 on the perimeter. That makes sense.

And he said: Fine.

It was a very short phone call, and I have only the vaguest recollection of it at this point.

And, just so we're crystal clear on this DOD versus DOJ kind of narrative about the designation of the lead Federal agency, at no point did Mr. McCarthy or Mr. Miller or anyone from DOD, well, did they ever defer to you that day, in your role that you took on, or did they ever inform you, "Oh, I heard DOJ is the lead Federal agency now"?

No. No one said that, and I didn't tell them that. And I didn't take what the chief of staff said in that phone call to mean that I should be moving troops around the Nation's Capital. I just never—you know, when he said, "You're in charge of the Federal agencies," I did not take that to mean National Guard.

And I knew that I had no authority, even with the blessing of the chief of staff or the President himself, to take control of the Capitol Police or the Metro PD. So I wasn't going to get into that discussion and debate with the chief of staff at that point. I was confident that we could make the situation happen or the situation resolved.

But I did not tell anyone, aside from Dave Bowdich, that the chief of staff had given those instructions at that point. It was not necessary. It was going to confuse things. The Capitol Police were in charge of the Capitol no matter what the chief of staff said, and they were more than happy to have the help. So there was no need to bring that up with the Capitol Police, DOD, or anyone else.

I think that wraps up my portion.

I just have a couple questions to round it out. But, at any point on January 6th or prior to, did you sense any resistance from any DOD official to respond on that day,