GOP eyes subpoena of Blinken

The head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said Monday he will subpoena Secretary of State Antony Blinken for documents the panel has requested for months on the botched US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) had given the State Department until close of business Monday to turn over a July 13, 2021, “dissent cable” written by 23 diplomats that he said “warned of rapid territorial gains by the Taliban and the subsequent collapse of Afghan security forces and offered recommendations on ways to mitigate the crisis and speed up an evacuation.”

“We have made multiple good faith attempts to find common ground so we could see this critical piece of information,” McCaul said. “Unfortunately, Secretary Blinken has refused to provide the Dissent Cable and his response to the cable, forcing me to issue my first subpoena as chairman of this committee.”

Diplomats use the “cherished tradition” of dissent channels as “a unique way for anyone in the department to speak truth to power as they see it without fear or favor,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said earlier Monday.

Asked if the department would comply with the committee’s request, Patel demurred, claiming that “we are prepared to make the relevant information in the cable available, including group briefings or some other mechanisms.”

However, McCaul claimed the department refused to hand over the cable despite the chairman offering both to review the document in private and allow the department to redact names of diplomats who signed the cable.

The missive is one of “three specific priority items” GOP lawmakers want for their investigation into the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, which culminated in a chaotic evacuation that led to the deaths of 13 US service members and hundreds of Afghans in an ISIS suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport.

“The American people deserve answers as to how this tragedy unfolded,” McCaul said Monday.