Page:CTRL0000034600 - Transcribed Interview of Richard Peter Donoghue, (Oct. 1, 2021).pdf/96

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A Yes, but it went beyond. They had some claims in Pennsylvania about how, essentially, the procedures of the election were changed by State officials and not changed by the State legislature. And their claim was that the Constitution required that the State elections be conducted in accordance with the rules set by the State legislature. That's fine. There may or may not have been merit to that claim, but it wasn't the Department's issue. We had no role in that. And we explained that repeatedly to people, including the President, said that's something for the campaign to pursue in civil actions on their own. The United States Justice Department doesn't come in and file suits because the States are not complying with their own election laws, if that was even the case.

Q Yeah. All right. I just have another couple of things along the lines of his chief of staff sending you things. Is it fair to say, Mr. Donoghue, that after that meeting in person in his office, you got a few additional things sent by email from Mr. Meadows with allegations that he wanted you and others at the Department to be aware of?

A Yes, they primarily went to the Acting Attorney General, and then he would forward some of them to me, but you can see a series of emails.

Q Yeah. Let's turn first to exhibit 20, which is an email that comes to Mr. Rosen, as you said, from Mr. Meadows, that is forwarding something from Cleta Mitchell. Do you know who Cleta Mitchell is?

A I don't know who that is, but I know that name was associated with the President's legal team and that she was involved in filing some of these cases around the country at this time.

Q All right. And Mr. Meadows asked Mr. Rosen: Can you have your team look into the allegations of wrongdoing, only the alleged fraudulent activity?

Do you remember seeing that and getting that request from Mr. Meadows that