GOP lawmaker threatens to subpoena Jake Sullivan if he doesn’t testify over Afghan pullout

The chairman of the GOP-led House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday said he will subpoena National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan if he refuses to appear before the panel to answer questions about his role in the deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

In a letter to White House deputy counsel Rachel Cotton, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said Mr. Sullivan and the National Security Council wielded “extraordinary influence” over the planning and execution of the Biden-Harris administration’s plan to remove American military personnel from Afghanistan following the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul. 

The congressman set a deadline of Tuesday for Mr. Sullivan to appear.

“The National Security Council, led by Mr. Sullivan, served as the nerve center for critical decision-making for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Mr. McCaul wrote. “Mr. Sullivan systematically exercised powers delegated to the Department of State, and critical questions remain that only he can answer.”

Mr. McCaul said the NSC repeatedly interceded in a decision-making process that belonged to the State Department. Mr. Sullivan was the director of the interagency review process that resulted in President Biden’s April 2021 “go to zero” order about pulling U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Mr. McCaul said the NSC led the decision-making regarding the evacuation of Afghans and to move the U.S. Embassy to Hamid Karzai International Airport after Kabul was surrounded by the Taliban.

“It was Mr. Sullivan, not Secretary (of State Antony) Blinken, whom the then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley called on Aug. 12, 2021, to suggest that the State Department initiate a Noncombatant Evacuation Operation,” Mr. McCaul wrote. 

The letter also notes that the NSC took the lead in the Biden-Harris administration’s public communications strategy regarding the Afghan pullout, which resulted in 13 U.S. service members killed and dozens of others wounded. The agency’s press team put together talking points and answers to questions for White House press briefings. 

“Mr. Sullivan has shown through word and deed that he exercised powers congressionally delegated to the State Department,” Mr. McCaul wrote.

The congressman denied that a request for testimony from Mr. Sullivan would threaten the independence of the executive branch. Mr. McCaul said an unlawful consolidation of diplomatic authority within the White House has obstructed the oversight power of Congress.

“Mr. Sullivan must testify before this committee, not because of his title, but because of the power he wielded,” Mr. McCaul wrote. “I seek testimony on Mr. Sullivan’s exercise of State Department powers, not his national security advice to the president.”