Page:CTRL0000034600 - Transcribed Interview of Richard Peter Donoghue, (Oct. 1, 2021).pdf/42

42 back when, in 2017 and 2018.

But there was a long period of time when I had no contact with the President. So the notion that he was considering me for that surprised me.

So he was familiar with your work in the Eastern District of New York and you'd had some conversations with him about that in the past?

Yes. I'd had conversations with him relating to the MS-13 work. I'd had conversations with him during a bill signing in the Oval Office about some of our human trafficking work. And he also called to congratulate the trial team when El Chapo was convicted and when El Chapo was sentenced, so I had two phone calls from him on that case. So he was aware of the case.

I see.

During the conversation with you that night that you just described, did he say anything disparaging about Jeff Rosen or express any concern about Rosen's fitness to serve as Acting Attorney General?

No, not at all.

Okay.

All right. I am going to pause here and see if any of the members of the select committee have any questions.

Ms. Cheney, we're going to start with you. Do you have anything?

Ms. Cheney. Thanks, I did have a question, a couple questions.

One is: Mr. Donoghue, we talked at some length about whether or not the White House or the President was informed about the Antrim report. On the result of the investigations, the interviews that had gone on on Fulton County, how would those results have been communicated to the White House, to the President?

Mr. Donoghue. I don't know how they were initially communicated. I do know