Professional Backgound
- Donna began working for Josh during the Bartlet for America campaign in February 1998. She quit for a while, but resumed working for Josh in April 1998 [2.18]. She maneuvered her way into a position as Josh's assistant (initially as a volunteer) in order to find her confidence and start over [2.2].
- When the series begins, she has been working for Josh for eighteen months [1.1]. Josh thinks Donna knows everything that goes on in the West Wing [1.3].
- Donna maintains something she calls her "What a Shame" folder -- a compendium of policy initiatives they always meant to get to, but haven't had time to address, including foreign adoption policy, hybrid energy partnerships, 21st century teachers' corps, extending roadless conservation, ammunition control, and funding special education for kids with disabilities. When Josh is cut out of Leo's inner circle after losing Carrick, Donna brings him out of his funk by presenting him with some idealistic tasks from her folder [5.6].
- Donna knows people in the White House who use drugs, but refused to name names when Josh ended up with the tricky task of investigating fallacious claims about White House staffers and drug use [1.9].
- She has never gotten a message wrong [1.18].
- She organized the assistants in an effort to get the administration to implement OSHA's workplace guidelines regarding repetitive stress injuries [2.6].
- Unlike Ed and Larry, Donna gets to ride in the motorcade [3.1]. On the other hand, she occasionally gets really bad assignments like shadowing possible security risks at parties, which Donna likens to Laverne & Shirley [4.18].
- Donna was the first assistant to be told that the President has MS [2.21].
- Donna and Margaret seem to have taken on Mrs. Landingham's role as de facto leaders of the assistants [3.20].
- On orders from Josh and the White House Counsel's Office, Donna took over a storage room at the OEOB and began sorting through any interoffice or interdepartmental documents both from the Bartlet For America campaign and from the West Wing [3.5].
- She was subpoenaed during the Congressional investigation into the President's MS [3.5]. By lying about her diary, she broke the following laws:
- 18 U.S.C. § 1001, lying to Congress -- $10,000 and not more than five years in prison;
- 18 U.S.C. § 1505, obstruction of proceedings before departments, agencies and committees -- not more than five years in prison;
- 2 U.S.C. § 192, contempt of Congress -- $1000 and imprisonment in a common jail for not more than twelve months [3.5].
- Donna thought Cliff's jokes during her deposition were "smarmy" [3.5].
- 21 magazine described Donna as "not afraid to bring a note of let's-do-drinks-after-work into the office," but also called her inexperienced and possessing a "Bambi-esque naiveté" [4.5].
- She was offered a job as issues director for CapitolScoop.Com. According to Casey Reed, who offered her the job, "You're Josh Lyman's traffic cop; that's like an M.A. in power brokering. You know the Hill; you know every corner of the White House. You know every pressure point ten miles from the Potomac" [3.13].
- When in Orange County, Donna accidentally met with the California gubernatorial candidate who ran on the Communist ticket [4.16].
- While Air Force One is stuck circling over portions of Tennessee, Donna tells Josh that she wants to do more. He mocks her a little, then assigns her to liaise with her contacts at Airlift Ops so she can brief CJ once the plane finally lands [4.19]. Later, Josh assigns her to work with CJ's office on an anonymously sourced story suggesting that the White House got 100,000 c0mputers into classrooms in exchange for persuading the Justice Department to drop an anti-trust suit against Casseon [4.21].
- Donna had the questionable fortune of being the person sorting faxes received after Zoey Bartlet's abduction; she's the one who found the ransom note demanding the release of three prisoners and Islamabad [4.23].
- Donna is a living index for the budget data, and Josh loaned her out to Angela Blake after Leo cut him out of the loop [5.7].
- During the government shutdown, Donna made a crucial save when she realized that unless action were taken, 11 million Social Security checks wouldn't go out [5.8].
