Page:CTRL0000034600 - Transcribed Interview of Richard Peter Donoghue, (Oct. 1, 2021).pdf/91

91 A It stopped at that point. I think the FBI got back to me with either no information or similar information saying this guy has got a bunch of issues, and he is not a reliable source of information. I don't remember exactly, but I was ahead of them just by googling the guy.

Okay. All right. The other followup from the December 29th meeting involves the Supreme Court case. I want to go back to that. After the meeting in Mr. Meadows' office, do you get an email from the President's assistant, Molly Michael, with a draft complaint? Typically—we're at tab 15—

I don't know if it was before or after, frankly. I see her email as 11:17 on the 29th. That might have come after; it might have come before this meeting. I don't remember exactly when the meeting was in the Chief of Staff's Office on the 29th, but it's the same day.

Okay. And is it right, Mr. Donoghue, that she forwards you, whether it was before or after the meeting in Meadows' office, a draft complaint, the United States of America versus several States, the complaint that was the subject of the original jurisdiction discussion that you just referenced?

Yes. That's right.

So tell us, first of all, substantively, in your view, was—did Department of Justice have standing to bring—would the Department have had standing to bring this case in the Supreme Court?

Initially, when this was brought up, I did not know. I suspected not, but I didn't know. And so we asked both OLC, the Office of Legal Counsel, and OSG, the Office of Solicitor General to look at the standing issue. There were a lot of other issues, obviously, too, but your initial question is, would we even have standing?

Right.