Page:CTRL0000034600 - Transcribed Interview of Richard Peter Donoghue, (Oct. 1, 2021).pdf/95

95 before about the President making requests. You're getting a call here from a lawyer who says: I am acting at the direction of the President.

Did that create in you or Mr. Rosen any pressure or any feeling that this was coming from your boss at the White House, that you should take some official action as a result of that desire to file this litigation?

Frankly, from my perspective, it didn't change much. We had explained, and we will explain again to the President, that this is just not the Department's role. Clearly, other people thought otherwise. And I understood, at least from the President's perspective as a nonlawyer, why you would believe that the United States Justice Department must have standing to bring a case that challenges the way a State conducted its election. That made perfect sense to me from a layman's point of view. But lawyers, particularly lawyers who drafted complaints and have purportedly done the research on this stuff, should understand otherwise.

Yeah. The other subject of that discussion in the Chief of Staff's Office was the Pennsylvania allegations. Did you ever have any contact with the State senator, Mastriano, who is reflected in your notes? Did he ever call you, or did you have any conversation about something that happened in the Pennsylvania election?

I don't recall as I sit here if he called me. I do distinctly remember the conversation with Congressman Perry. I believe Mastriano sent me either some emails or some letters or something to that effect. I remember getting something from him along similar lines, but it was all sort of balled up with what Congressman Perry was talking about. And I don't recollect speaking to Mastriano, but I may have.

And the allegation there was about more votes counted than registered voters, which you were able to, with Mr. Brady as U.S. attorney, essentially, rebut. Is that right?