Donoghue objected, saying Pak had "been doing his job."[314] But the President insisted, pointing out that Pak criticized him years earlier. "This guy is a Never Trumper," the President reiterated.[315] "He should never have been in my administration to begin with. How did this guy end up in my administration?"[316] The President threatened to fire Pak.[317] When Donoghue pointed out that Pak was already planning to resign the next day, a Monday, President Trump insisted that it be Pak's last day on the job.[318] Pak later confirmed to Donoghue that he would be leaving the next day.[319]
President Trump asked if those in attendance at the Oval Office meeting knew Bobby Christine, who was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.[320] Even though Pak had a first assistant, who was next in line for Pak's job upon his resignation, President Trump wanted Christine to take the role.[321] Christine did take over for Pak, but he did not find any evidence of fraud either. It was Donoghue's impression that Christine "concluded that the election matters . . . were handled appropriately."[322]
Later in the evening of January 3rd, President Trump called Donoghue to pass along yet another conspiracy theory.[323] The President had heard that an ICE agent outside of Atlanta was in custody of a truck filled with shredded ballots.[324] Donoghue explained that ICE agents are part of the Department of Homeland Security, so the matter would be under that Department's purview. President Trump asked Donoghue to inform Ken Cuccinelli.[325] That story—like all the others—turned out to be fiction when DOJ investigators evaluated the claim. The truck was carrying shredded ballots, but they were from a previous election. The old ballots had been shredded to make room for storing ballots from the 2020 election.[326]
4.15 PRESIDENT TRUMP’S UNPRECEDENTED ATTEMPT TO SUBVERT THE DOJ
The most senior DOJ officials at the end of President Trump's term stopped him from co-opting America's leading law enforcement agency for his own corrupt purposes. Recall that Attorney General Barr commented "you can't live in a world where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by specific evidence, that the election—that there was fraud in the election.[327]
Richard Donoghue concluded that Jeffrey Clark's letter "may very well have spiraled us into a constitutional crisis."[328]
Jeffrey Rosen summed up his short time as the Acting Attorney General like this:
