House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) has scheduled a markup on Sept. 19 to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress, saying he failed to respond to a subpoena issued last week for his testimony on the Afghanistan exit.
Following a committee markup, the full House would need to vote on the measure to refer it to the Department of Justice for prosecution — a move unlikely to be carried out under the Biden administration, but that could be treated differently in a potential second Trump term.
Blinken has previously testified about the Afghanistan withdrawal, appearing before the committee in September 2021, one month after the withdrawal, for more than five hours. He has also appeared before the committee to testify on President Biden’s budget requests for the State Department, where he answered questions on Afghanistan.
The State Department said in a statement to The Hill that Blinken has testified before Congress on Afghanistan more than 14 times, including four times in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
But McCaul issued a new subpoena for Blinken’s testimony on Sept. 3 following the conclusion of his more than three-year investigation into the U.S. withdrawal, with the final report published Sunday.
The report is highly critical of Biden’s decision to withdraw all U.S. military forces from Afghanistan and accuses the administration of failing to plan for all contingencies.
