Home Overseas Affairs Committee Chair McCaul subpoenas Blinken

Home Overseas Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) subpoenaed Secretary of State Antony Blinken for what he described as a “refusal” to testify on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

The subpoena mandates Blinken seem earlier than the committee on Sept. 19 or face contempt, the committee mentioned in a statement Tuesday. It follows a greater than a yearlong battle between the committee and the State Division over paperwork associated to the nation’s lethal pullout from Afghanistan on the finish of August 2021.

“The Committee is holding this listening to as a result of the Division of State was central to the Afghanistan withdrawal and served because the senior authority throughout the August non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO),” McCaul wrote within the letter to Blinken. “As Secretary of State all through the withdrawal and NEO, you had been entrusted to guide these efforts and to safe the protected evacuation of People and Afghan allies.”

The subpoena comes months after McCaul threatened to hold Blinken in contempt in February if the State Division continued to allegedly withhold subpoenaed paperwork relating to the U.S. exit from Afghanistan. McCaul had repeatedly demanded the paperwork as a part of Republicans’ investigation into what he referred to as a “chaotic” withdrawal from the Center Japanese nation.

In March, McCaul postponed a markup for a contempt decision for Blinken after the secretary agreed to provide the paperwork, months after the committee despatched a subpoena for them in July 2023.

State Division spokesperson Matthew Miller mentioned Blinken has testified earlier than Congress greater than 14 instances, and he mentioned Blinken is presently unavailable to testify on the dates proposed by the committee.

“This contains 4 instances immediately earlier than Chairman McCaul’s Committee, together with a earlier listening to that targeted completely on Afghanistan, all whereas the Division has offered the Committee with almost 20,000 pages of Division data, a number of high-level briefings, and engaged on transcribed interviews on almost 15 present and former State Division officers with the Committee,” Miller wrote in an announcement to The Hill.

Miller mentioned the State Division has opposed “affordable alternate options” to adjust to McCaul’s request for a public listening to.

“It’s disappointing that as a substitute of constant to have interaction with the Division in good religion, the Committee as a substitute has issued one more pointless subpoena,” he mentioned.

In March 2023, McCaul issued a separate subpoena for a delicate diplomatic cable on the withdrawal. The State Division missed the deadline, beforehand telling The Hill that Blinken provided to transient the chair with out offering the precise doc.

McCaul claimed a briefing or abstract wouldn’t fulfill the subpoena and threatened once more to hold Blinken in contempt of Congress.

The State Division eventually agreed to permit all committee members to view the diplomatic cable the next month.

Final week marked the three-year anniversary of the tip of the lethal and chaotic U.S. withdrawal from the Center Japanese nation. Many evacuees and allies stay in limbo, and 1000’s airlifted overseas are caught in an immigration backlog that leaves them with no everlasting approach to stay within the U.S.