Biden admin ignores congressional subpoena for Afghanistan documents a third time

President Biden’s administration ignored a congressional subpoena for documents relating to the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan for the third time on Tuesday.

Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, filed the subpoena in his role as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Secretary of State Tony Blinken blew past the original deadline to supply the documents in March, then again in April when McCaul pushed back the deadline. McCaul set his latest line in the sand at May 1, and Blinken again refused to provide the documents.

McCaul’s subpoena seeks a dissent cable from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, a document that would have contained any concerns officials had about Biden’s withdrawal plans.

Rather than comply with the subpoena, the State Department offered to give McCaul and his committee a briefing on the documents contents. McCaul accepted the briefing in April but clarified that it did not constitute complying with the subpoena.

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Despite the briefing, McCaul and other Republicans on the committee said the still had unanswered questions that could only be satisfied by seeing the document itself.

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State Department principal deputy spokesman Vedant Patel argued to reporters on Monday that the DOS believes it has done nothing wrong.

“We have communicated with the House Foreign Affairs Committee with an offer that we believe is sufficient for them to conduct their appropriate oversight duty,” he said during a Monday briefing.

“That has included a written summary of dissent coming out of the embassy in Kabul and others. It has also involved a closed-door classified briefing to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on these topics,” he continued.

Blinken stated at a hearing in March that the State Department would never release the dissent cable, arguing that doing so would risk the authenticity of future cables.

“It is vital to me that we preserve the integrity of that process and of that channel, that we not take any steps that could have a chilling effect on the willingness of others to come forward in the future, to express dissenting views on the policies that are being pursued,” Blinken testified at the time.

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was among the lowest points in Biden’s presidency. While the vast majority of Americans supported the decision to leave the country, they also overwhelmingly disapproved of Biden’s handling of the operation.