House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul stated on Sunday that he had formally sought a series of transcribed interviews with current and former State Department officials as part of his committee’s probe into the Biden administration’s exit from Afghanistan.
The Republican-led committee’s requests for on-the-record interviews are the first in the investigation of the frantic last weeks of the 2021 drawdown, during which a suicide bomber stormed Kabul airport and killed 13 US service members and over 100 Afghans.
The Texas Republican sent requests to Jonathan Mennuti, the former acting chief of staff to acting Under Secretary of State for Management Carol Perez; Mark Evans, the former acting deputy assistant secretary for Afghanistan; James DeHart, the former leader of the Afghanistan Task Force; Consul General Jayne Howell; and former Ambassador Daniel Smith, who led the State Department’s after-action review of the withdrawal.
McCaul requested that the witnesses contact the committee by May 22 to schedule their interviews.
“Through our ongoing investigation, we have determined that these five individuals have important information that is critical to uncovering how and why the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members and the injury of 47 more, as well as the abandonment of more than a thousand U.S. citizens and hundreds of thousands of our Afghan partners in a country controlled by terrorists,” McCaul said in a statement on Sunday.
“It is critical that they speak with the committee as soon as possible.” As we continue to gather evidence, the Committee will question additional current and former administration officials involved in the withdrawal’s planning and execution,” he continued.
McCaul made the request after threatening to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena for a dissent cable issued in March by former US diplomats in Kabul criticising the administration’s plans to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan.
McCaul stated on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he is “prepared to move forward” with contempt proceedings against Blinken for failing to provide the necessary material.
“This would be the first time a secretary of state has ever been held in criminal contempt by Congress.” “I don’t take it lightly,” McCaul explained.
Previously, a State Department official characterised the panel’s threat to hold Blinken in contempt of Congress “unnecessary and unproductive action.”
