Page:CTRL0000034610 - Deposition of Keith Kellogg, Jr., (Dec. 14, 2021).pdf/72

72 Okay.

So, when you first get to the White House, what do you do?

First, get to the White House, what I normally do, I went to the my office. I would always get the President's Daily Brief, the intelligence brief. It would generally take me an hour to an hour and a half read. I'd get a cup of coffee and sit down and just tell everybody to leave me alone because I wanted to focus in on what was being read, so I would be ready if and when the Vice President came in or the President called over for it and went through that.

And then because -- because the Secretary or the National Security Advisor, Robert O'Brien, was on his farewell tour; he was down in Miami. The National -- different National Security Advisor, Matt Pottinger, had not come in. And he had not planned to come in until about midday. I just did what I normally do. I walked over to the West Wing and went into my other office. Checked in there. Then walked around. had a cup of coffee again and --

Okay.

-- went back.

Were you the senior most national security official in the White House that morning?

Yeah, and because of that, you know, generally how we did it in the White House if Robert or Matt wasn't there? I would cover down as the national security guy.

What does that mean just functionally? So to give us a sense.

Well, what would happen is I would, by default, because of my position, because I was, again, the three of us were all APs. I had received the PDB. I knew what was going on. If they were there, and because the President's Daily Brief is relatively restricted, I knew what was going on. So I would follow it and basically cover