Page:CTRL0000034609 - Transcribed Interview of Kashyap Pramod Patel, (December 9, 2021).pdf/41

41 Let me just finish reading the rest of that paragraph. And I have the article here, but—

Yeah, if you don't mind.

—it says—

Could we get a copy?

Sure.

It states—let me read the full thing—Trump says: You're going to need 10,000 people.

Miller responds: Maybe, but, you know, someone is going to have to ask for it.

Okay.

So correct me if I'm wrong, but, in that exchange, it sounds like that's not an order from the President to Acting Secretary Miller—

Well, I think—

—if the response is, "Maybe, but, you know, someone is going to have to ask for it," meaning "You haven't asked for it, President Trump."

So what I take away from that—

There's the article.

Mr. Sofer. We have it.

Oh, okay.

The Witness. What I take away from that is—I don't know about this issuing orders or not. And having known Acting Secretary Miller and worked for him, was that Acting Secretary Miller—and he'd be the best person to talk to—knew that he needed a Presidential authorization per our communication with DOD General Counsel and their communications with the White House Counsel, that unless the President said X number is authorized, then we could not mobilize any number.