Page:CTRL0000034609 - Transcribed Interview of Kashyap Pramod Patel, (December 9, 2021).pdf/126

126 Any positions.

Yes. There was conversations about—similarly like I had conversations with the President about his displeasure about Dr. Esper—

Yeah.

—there was conversations in general about specific, again, operations that we had undertaken under President Trump, which are classified, to accomplish those goals. We had some conversations about the displeasure of not accomplishing those national security goals.

I see. So that's helpful. So there was discussion that you recall—correct me if I'm wrong—about the President being displeased with the CIA or the FBI's role in accomplishing policy goals.

I think maybe, generally speaking, I would characterize it as operational versus policy, but I don't know that I can get—

Well, just tell me what you remember. What was the source of the displeasure?

Well, I can't get into those details, because those operational goals and decisions were and, as I remember, are classified.

So all of it, all of the displeasure of which you're aware, has to do with classified information?

Well, when you're talking about the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, yeah, they live in the classified space, as I did for most of my career—or all of it, I think, at the White House.

So I'm telling you we had conversations about it, and I'm telling you it was specific to operations. But I'm telling you I'm not going to disclose—and you've asked me not to—