US Lawmaker Threatens to Hold Blinken in Contempt Over Afghanistan Documents

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee moved ahead on Thursday with a bid to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress for withholding documents related to the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Republican Representative Michael McCaul said the committee would meet on March 7 to consider a resolution recommending that Blinken be held in contempt “for his continued refusal to comply with a subpoena served by the committee in July.”

The House committee has been seeking more information from the State Department for months over the withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Republicans – and some Democrats – say there has never been a full accounting of the chaotic operation, in which 13 U.S. service members were killed at Kabul’s airport.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

On Wednesday State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said he had not had a chance to look into a statement from McCaul’s office on the inquiry. He added: “I can say the offer that we have made to them, which is to have the deputy secretary come and discuss this with them, still stands, obviously, to try to work through these issues.”

Miller said State has turned over thousands of pages of documents and made witnesses available for transcribed interview, while noting that the executive branch has “legitimate confidentiality rights.”

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Simon Lewis; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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