House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) has scheduled a hearing to consider a resolution holding U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress for not turning over documents detailing the August 2021 military withdrawal and civilian evacuation from Afghanistan.
For months, Mr. McCaul has been seeking a variety of State Department records on the Afghanistan evacuation, including specific files that informed the department’s After-Action Review on Afghanistan (AAR). In a Monday letter, the Texas Republican told Mr. Blinken the responses he’d received to date had been inadequate and verged on contempt.
“The Committee’s patience has been exhausted, and it requires these files to complete its investigation and make legislative recommendations for this Congress to consider,” Mr. McCaul’s letter to Mr. Blinken reads. “Should the Department fail to produce the priority AAR files outlined below by March 6, 2024, the Committee is prepared to hold you in contempt of Congress.”
Mr. McCaul appeared to underscore his March 6 deadline on Thursday by formally scheduling a March 7 mark-up hearing; the agenda set at considering whether to hold Mr. Blinken in contempt of Congress.
Should the State Department not turn over the desired records, and a majority in the Republican-controlled House then find Mr. Blinken in contempt, it would make him the second member of President Joe Biden’s cabinet to face reprimand from Congress in about a month. On Feb. 13, the House voted by a narrow 214-213 margin to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of U.S. border security and his forthcoming level about his department’s control over the U.S. borders.
While the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate may outright dismiss the impeachment case against Mr. Mayorkas without a Senate trial, a contempt resolution in the House could trigger a referral forcing the U.S. Department of Justice to consider whether to criminally charge Mr. Blinken.
The State Department played a leading role in handling the withdrawal efforts from Afghanistan as the U.S.-backed Afghan government collapsed over the summer of 2021. The department coordinated evacuation efforts for U.S. civilians in Afghanistan, as well as Afghans and other foreign nationals in the country, and even had to negotiate with the Taliban to allow people to get through the main evacuation point at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
The State Department’s March 2022 Afghanistan AAR identified shortcomings predicting the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government, difficulties handling the Kabul evacuation after U.S. military forces had already significantly withdrawn from the country, challenges locating U.S. citizens during the evacuation, and uncertainty handling evacuations of non-citizens.
State Department Balancing House Records Request With ‘Executive Branch Equities’
Mr. McCaul began seeking State Department records regarding its handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal on Jan. 12, 2023, shortly after Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives. Mr. McCaul requested “all documents resulting from State Department internal reviews related to the Afghanistan withdrawal.” Mr. McCaul said his committee followed up on these records requests in March and April “with no response from the Department.”
On July 18, Mr. McCaul’s requests for the State Department’s Afghan withdrawal records turned into a legally binding demand. According to the Texas Republican, the State Department responded before the July 25 deadline “with a mere 57-page production, over a third of which were duplicates.”
On Aug. 9, Mr. McCaul changed tactics by requesting transcribed interviews with the Department’s Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Legislative Affairs, Naz Durakoğlu, and Acting Legal Adviser Richard Visek. Mr. McCaul said by Aug. 11, he and Mr. Blinken had reached an understanding wherein Mr. McCaul would cancel the requests for these transcribed interviews, and the State Department would provide weekly document productions.
In an Aug. 31 interview, Ambassador Dan Smith—who lead the Afghanistan AAR—informed the House committee about interview notes that played a role in the AAR process. The House committee requested these interview notes, but according to Mr. McCaul, the State Department indicated in an Oct. 20 response that it may refuse to turn over the requested records.
The back-and-forth communications over these interview notes continued for weeks. According to Mr. McCaul, the State Department eventually indicated by Jan. 12 that the White House was holding up the release of these notes.
Speaking with reporters during a Thursday press briefing, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Congress has “a legitimate interest” in the records they had been seeking, but “that does not mean that there aren’t also longstanding executive branch equities that we need to be mindful of.”
Asked about the risk of the State Department failing to turn over the requested records by March 6 and a subsequent contempt vote, Mr. Miller said the department would keep in contact with the House Foreign Affairs Committee and negotiate toward a resolution.
