House Republicans Postpone Contempt Hearing After Blinken Commits to Produce Documents

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) speaks with reporters after the House Republicans meeting securing the GOP nomination for House Speaker in Washington on Oct. 11, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has agreed to cooperate with House Republicans’ request that he release review records about the deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan after the lawmakers threatened to hold him in contempt of Congress.

This agreement came after the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), told Mr. Blinken in a Feb. 26 letter that its “patience has been exhausted” over the year-long pursuit of the administration’s internal After-Action Review (AAR) analysis.

Mr. McCaul is seeking the document that detailed the “significant failures” of the United States military pullout from Afghanistan in August 2021, which resulted in the death of 13 U.S. service members in a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport.

A spokesperson for the committee confirmed to The Epoch Times that the committee postponed the contempt vote, and they expected to start receiving information from the State Department as soon as the same day, March 7.

Additionally, the spokesperson offered Mr. McCaul’s public statement about the change: “I had a good conversation with the secretary last night and he agreed to produce the documents. In the spirit of good faith negotiations, I’ve postponed the markup—with the understanding that these documents will be produced.”

“I’ve been told we will start to get them this morning,” he said. “Our teams are working to facilitate that. These documents will provide crucial information for our investigation. I take the secretary at his word that we will get all these documents. But if the situation changes, I will have to revisit all our options to ensuring they are produced.”

In a Feb. 26 press release accompanying the Texas Republican’s letter warning the secretary of state about possible contempt charges, the committee said that “these interview documents are vital to the committee’s quest for the truth and related legislative reform efforts.”

Additionally, Mr. McCaul asserted that the notes “are being withheld by the White House and National Security Council.”

In the letter, the committee chairman gave the Biden administration official until March 6 to produce the documents or face contempt of Congress charges from his committee, saying, “The Department’s stated reasons for withholding the interview notes are not rooted in law and, in fact, contravene Congress’s constitutional and statutory oversight authority.”

“The law does not afford the State Department blanket authority to hide behind ‘Executive Branch confidentiality interests’ to obstruct Congress’s access to the truth,” Mr. McCaul wrote.

“The Committee has pursued the AAR team’s interview notes in good faith and with every effort to compromise. The Department has not negotiated in good faith and has failed to both comply with the Committee’s July 2023 subpoena and fulfill your August 11 personal commitment to cooperate with this investigation.”

The recent threat of charges isn’t the first time Mr. McCaul has sparred with Mr. Blinken over documentation concerning the same event.

Mr. McCaul made a similar threat last year when he sent a May 5, 2023, letter compelling the official to produce the “unredacted form” of the Dissent Channel cable, signed by almost two dozen officials who offered their objections to the Biden administration’s plans to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Later that month, Mr. McCaul and Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) were allowed to read the document. Upon continued efforts by the committee in June 2023, it was announced that the full committee would be allowed to view the cable.

Mr. McCaul ended his letter to Mr. Blinken by saying, “It is appalling that over two years after the deadly and chaotic withdrawal, the Department continues to choose politics over policy.”