More than two years since President Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, members of his cabinet are still refusing to turn over documents related to the deadly fiasco labeled a record-breaking success by the administration.
Now, it's Secretary of State Antony Blinken who's facing the ire of lawmakers for failing to be transparent with Congress as House Republicans seek accountability and the first-hand facts from the withdrawal in the hope of preventing similar disasters in the future.
In a letter Monday night, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) threatened to hold Sec. Blinken in contempt of Congress if the State Department continues withholding documents — specifically interview documents used to draft the administration's "after-action review" of Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal.
That internal 90-day review, based on interviews following Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, found notable shortcomings and significant failures within the State Department's role in the execution of America's departure from Afghanistan after two decades. Notes and transcripts from those interviews contain first-hand accounts of the disaster as it unfolded and worsened — even while President Biden and his administration painted a rosy but false picture of the deteriorating situation. Still, Blinken refuses to turn them over to McCaul and the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Chairman McCaul's five-page letter notes that 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," and reminds Blinken that the Foreign Affairs Committee "has pursued the AAR team’s interview notes in good faith and with every effort to compromise." McCaul underscores that though his efforts to obtain the notes, the State 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 Committee’s patience has been exhausted, and it requires these files to complete its investigation and make legislative recommendations for this Congress to consider," McCaul emphasizes in his letter. "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," he warned.
McCaul's letter also lays out more than one year's worth of efforts to obtain the AAR files, all of which Blinken and the State Department have refused, including committee communications seeking the files on January 12, March 3, April 25, July 18, August 9, October 11, November 16, November 28, 2023, and again on January 12, 2024. Despite offers to extend deadlines, address State Department concerns about redactions, and more than one year's worth of requests, Blinken's department still has not provided the AAR files to McCaul.
"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," McCaul reiterates in his letter. "It is appalling that over two years after the deadly and chaotic withdrawal, the Department continues to choose politics over policy."