Page:CTRL0000034600 - Transcribed Interview of Richard Peter Donoghue, (Oct. 1, 2021).pdf/68

68 Mr. Donoghue. Yes, ma'am.

Ms. Cheney. And, for context, the electoral college had met and voted on December 14th. And so, by the time of this phone call, we had had 50 Governors—Governors of each of our States had already certified the election results in each State.

Mr. Donoghue. Yes, that's right.

Ms. Cheney. Okay.

And so, you know, I guess you touched on this a little bit when you mentioned DAG Rosen saying the Department of Justice has nothing to do with this, you're free to bring suits. And, in fact, by this point, the President or his campaign had brought over 60 suits in State and Federal court in accordance with State laws, as the Constitution provides. In each of these States, they had already brought suit challenging the results, bringing these claims.

And so I just—in terms of this idea did that enter into your thinking? I mean, as we listen to you talk about the way you were describing for the President the fact that Department of Justice was investigating these claims, it really was the case that any legitimate claim had already been brought, had been adjudicated, as provided by State law, and, in fact, the electors had met and voted.

So I'm a little—I guess I'd like to understand a little bit more about, sort of, the open-ended nature of continuing to have the discussions about investigating fraud once the constitutionally prescribed system had taken place.