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Tags: mccaul | house | panel | blinken | contempt

Rep. McCaul Moves to Hold Blinken in Contempt

By    |   Thursday, 12 September 2024 10:09 PM EDT

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul, R-Texas, is moving forward with a resolution to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt over his failure to comply with a subpoena regarding the withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago.

McCaul has scheduled markup on the resolution for Sept. 19, the date Blinken was ordered to appear.

McCaul subpoenaed Blinken on Sept. 3 regarding the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan that led to, in part, the deaths of 13 U.S. service members in a suicide bombing at the airport.

In his letter to Blinken, McCaul said current and former State Department officials confirmed that Blinken was "the final decision maker" on the withdrawal and evacuation.

"You are therefore in a position to inform the Committee's consideration of potential legislation aimed at helping prevent the catastrophic mistakes of the withdrawal, including potential reforms to the Department's legislative authorization," McCaul wrote.

The State Department responded to the subpoena, saying that Blinken has testified before McCaul's committee four times and 14 times before Congress overall. However, with McCaul opting to expand the investigation, the new subpoena came amid the conclusion of a three-year investigation into the withdrawal from Afghanistan, one that was highly critical of President Joe Biden and his administration over the exit.

That final report was published Sunday.

"This was a catastrophic failure of epic proportions. This is a disgrace, and I will hold him in contempt if that's what it takes to bring him before the American people, because they deserve the answers," McCaul said earlier this week.

A State Department spokesman told The Hill on Thursday that Blinken had conflicts on the dates proposed by McCaul's panel, adding, the agency proposed "a number of reasonable alternatives to comply with Chairman McCaul's request for a public hearing, including offering alternative senior-level witnesses to testify next week or making the Secretary available to testify at a later date that works for both his and the Committee's schedule."

Spokesman Matthew Miller added, "It is disappointing that instead of engaging with the Department in good faith and accepting our repeated offers to testify, the Committee instead is short-circuiting further discussion and moving forward with this mark-up."

Following the markup, the full House would need to vote on the resolution and refer it to the Department of Justice for prosecution.

Mark Swanson

Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.

© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


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House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul, R-Texas, is moving forward with a resolution to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt over his failure to comply with a subpoena regarding the withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago.
mccaul, house, panel, blinken, contempt
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2024-09-12
Thursday, 12 September 2024 10:09 PM
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