Page:CTRL0000034600 - Transcribed Interview of Richard Peter Donoghue, (Oct. 1, 2021).pdf/53

53 enough investigation to dispel it, we would simply report, "We looked at that, and that's not true," or, "We looked at that, and there's no evidence to support that."

What—

So he would know—

I'm sorry. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

So that he would know that, in fact, we were doing our job and what our conclusion was. But we were not telling him specifics about individual investigations or anything like that.

Tell me more about that last statement, Mr. Donoghue. Why did you and Mr. Rosen have concern about providing him with more specific information about the Department's efforts? What was the, sort of, negative outcome that could ensue from providing him with that level of detail?

We just didn't think it was necessary, frankly. And he wasn't asking for it. He wasn't asking about how many witnesses did you interview, and what did you do, and things like that.

The problem, or part of the problem, was there were so many of these allegations that, when you addressed one, you said, "Mr. President, thanks, we looked at that, but there's nothing further to be done there," he would just roll on to another one. And so he had this stream of allegations, which were clearly being fed to him by a number of people, that he would keep referring our way.

And, again, if we didn't know about it, like this Pennsylvania one that he raised here, we would say, "Okay, I hadn't heard of that, thank you." But, for the most part, we would say, "Yes, we're aware of that."

So he was frustrated, and his frustration obviously increased over time.

Okay.