Q Do you remember how it is that this meeting came together? What was the subject matter? What did you expect in advance?
A This was relatively short notice. I think the President was in Florida for Christmas, and we had expected him to stay there through the New Year, but he came back on the 31st. And I think shortly after Air Force One landed, the Acting Attorney General was advised that we were required—requested to go to the White House. So he and I headed over to the White House sometime mid-afternoon.
Q Did you have any idea, Mr. Donoghue, on your way what the subject matter was? Or, if you didn't know for sure, did you have a suspicion as to what it was he wanted to talk about?
A I expected he wanted to talk about election matters. I don't know if we were specifically told that or not.
Q Okay.
So tell us about the meeting. First of all, start with the President's state of mind or mood. What was it like during the meeting?
A The President was a little more agitated than he had been in the meeting on the 15th. He discussed a variety of election matters. And, again, this was sort of in keeping with what we had discussed previously, where he would say, are you guys aware of this allegation or that allegation, and we would essentially say, yes, we're aware of that, thank you.
But he certainly was adamant that the election had been stolen, that he won, that the American people were being harmed by fraud, and that he believed the Justice Department should be doing something about it.
Q You did not take notes during this meeting. Is there a reason for that?
A I did not take notes, no—I never took notes in the Oval Office—in part
