US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul has issued a subpoena to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, demanding that he testify regarding the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. The subpoena, announced Tuesday, requires Blinken to appear before the committee on September 19 or face potential contempt charges. "The Committee is holding this hearing because the Department of State was central to the Afghanistan withdrawal and served as the senior authority during the August non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO)," McCaul wrote in a letter to Blinken. He emphasized Blinken's role in leading efforts to secure the evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies, noting that Blinken is uniquely positioned to inform legislative considerations to prevent similar failures in the future. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller responded by noting that Blinken has testified before Congress about Afghanistan more than 14 times, including multiple sessions directly before McCaul's committee. Miller added that Blinken is unavailable to testify on the requested date but offered alternative dates to comply with the committee's request. "It is disappointing that instead of continuing to engage with the Department in good faith, the Committee has issued yet another unnecessary subpoena," Miller said. McCaul's subpoena follows a long standoff between the committee and the State Department over access to documents related to the 2021 withdrawal, which Republicans have criticized as poorly managed. The State Department's Afghanistan After Action Review, released on June 30, faulted both the Trump and Biden administrations for the chaotic exit, citing insufficient senior-level consideration of worst-case scenarios in the planning process. — Agencies
