Blinken facing criminal contempt threat over documents related to Afghan withdrawal

A House committee will vote as soon as next week to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents related to the Biden administration’s abrupt U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan nearly two years ago. 

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul confirmed a May 24 contempt vote to The Washington Times and said it would be canceled if Mr. Blinken strikes an agreement this week to turn over the documents or otherwise provide an acceptable accommodation to the committee. 

Mr. Blinken would be the first secretary of state ever held in contempt of Congress. Mr. McCaul said the vote would not be politically motivated.

Congress, he said, is entitled to see critical exchanges in the Biden administration leading up to the chaotic withdrawal that led to the deaths of 13 servicemen and women and left thousands of Americans behind in addition to millions of dollars worth of military equipment.

Mr. Blinken has so far refused to comply with Mr. McCaul’s subpoena seeking a dissent cable that outlined the concerns of  23 U.S. diplomats ahead of the August 2021 pullout. The diplomats warned the Taliban was rapidly closing in and the Afghan security forces were falling apart and advised on speeding up evacuations.  

“I hope the Secretary will comply with our subpoena,” Mr. McCaul told The Times “We’ve given him a lot of accommodations. Exercised a lot of patience.”

The Texas Republican said he wants to avoid the contempt vote and is working with Mr. Blinken to obtain the material before next week. 

“I  think that the veterans deserve this and the gold-star families deserve to know what was in those cables,” Mr. McCaul said. 

Dissent cables are typically classified and Mr. Blinken told the committee in March he would never release the cable Mr. McCaul is seeking because doing so would damage the integrity of critical communications between the department and diplomats. 

State Department officials briefed Mr. McCaul in April on the cable but will not hand it over in full detail. 

Mr. McCaul said the State Department showed him “a sanitized version,” which he described as summarized and inadequate. He also noted that some media outlets had already obtained the documents he is seeking. 

“I want to see the original content,” Mr. McCaul said. “I also want to see the secretary’s response. It’s a state of mind, in the embassy at the time. And to have 23 dissenters is very significant to the policies that were being enacted.”

President Biden’s approval ratings took a sharp dive after the withdrawal. Since then, Mr. Biden has blamed his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, for setting up the conditions in Afghanistan that led to the botched pullout.

If the GOP-led panel votes to hold Mr. Blinken in contempt, the matter moves to the House floor, where a simple majority is needed to pass it. If Mr. Blinken is found in criminal contempt of Congress, it will be up to Mr. Biden’s Justice Department to pursue charges, which is doubtful. A court, however, will ultimately decide in a civil case whether Mr. Blinken must turn over the documents or otherwise accommodate Mr. McCaul’s subpoena, but that could take years.  

Correction: An earlier version of this story contained a misspelling of Sec. Blinken’s first name.