Page:CTRL0000034609 - Transcribed Interview of Kashyap Pramod Patel, (December 9, 2021).pdf/98

98 but we don't waste time with improper and unlawful orders. What we were busy doing was preparing the transition, handing off—and securing—what people forget is we had to secure the inauguration of President Biden. That was a DOD responsibility.

We were—also had to continue to issue the—what people don't know is the National Command Authority. That flows from the President to the Secretary of Defense. No one else. The mission sets in there are almost wholly classified, but we had to continue to operate those operations and policy.

Whether someone else was coming in or not, we ran through the echo of the whistle. That's what we did every time. When those guys were in uniform, when I was downrange with them serving, we ran until the mission said stop running.

Yeah. It's just hard to imagine, Mr. Patel, if somebody gave me an unlawful order or I even heard about anyone giving me an unlawful order, I would talk to people about that. That would be kind of a big deal, and there—

I'm telling you, I mean, I don't know who else you want me to talk to. We spoke to the National Security Advisor to the President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That's who you want to talk to if there's an improper or unlawful order. There isn't any other person that I would say would want to be—need to be in the room to have that discussion. We had it. They had it without me in and out of the room, came to a decision, and we moved on because we had other stuff to do.

Mr. Sofer. Can we have just one second?

[Discussion off the record.]

The Witness. Thanks. Sorry.


 * BY :

Yeah, Mr. Patel, again, I don't want to belabor this, I just—anything at all