House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said Thursday he's decided to postpone his markup for a resolution to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt after they spoke and Blinken agreed to produce documents on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
"I had a good conversation with the secretary last night, and he agreed to produce the documents," McCaul, R-Texas, told The Hill. "In the spirit of good faith negotiations, I've postponed the markup, with the understanding that these documents will be produced."
The committee and State Department have been in a standoff for over a year over the documents, with McCaul demanding them repeatedly as part of House Republicans' investigation into what he has called a "chaotic" withdrawal.
The postponement is the latest development in a battle between the Foreign Affairs Committee and the State Department over documents related to the country's deadly pullout from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Last week, McCaul sent a letter to Blinken with threats of being held in contempt of Congress if the notes from the State Department's After-Action Review (AAR) concerning Afghanistan were not handed over. The resolution markup had initially been scheduled for Thursday morning.
McCaul said the AAR has discovered "significant failures" in the State Department's response to the withdrawal, and said Thursday that the documents being sought will provide crucial information in his committee's probe.
"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 [ensure] they are produced," McCaul said.
The threatened contempt charges came several months after the Foreign Affairs Committee issued its initial subpoena in July for the documents.
By August, McCaul said the State Department only surrendered a "meager 73 pages of significantly duplicative materials" by the July 25 deadline.
McCaul, nearly a year ago, issued a separate subpoena seeking a sensitive diplomatic cable on the withdrawal, but the State Department missed that deadline.
At that time, Blinken offered to brief McCaul without providing the document, but McCaul said a briefing would not meet the subpoena's demands, and threatened in May to hold Blinken in contempt. That led to the State Department agreeing to allow the Foreign Affairs Committee to see the cable.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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