'Pattern of Obstruction': Blinken No-Shows Hearing on Afghan Withdrawal, Defying Subpoena and Prompting Contempt Resolution

Antony Blinken failed to attend a Tuesday hearing on the Biden-Harris administration's bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan, defying a congressional subpoena and setting the stage for him to be the first secretary of state ever held in contempt of Congress.

Blinken was mandated under subpoena by the House Foreign Affairs Committee to testify about the botched 2021 evacuation that brought the Taliban back to power and left 13 American service members dead. Blinken was expected to face tough questions about a recently unveiled congressional report detailing how the United States abandoned a "significant amount of classified information," advanced biometric data, and millions in cash when it fled the war-torn country.

Instead, the State Department informed the committee on Monday evening that Blinken would be a no-show, claiming he is too busy with the United Nations General Assembly in New York City to attend, according to sources familiar with the situation.

"The committee received a letter stating the secretary will not come," said one GOP committee source. "He didn’t provide any other dates for this week, claiming he’s busy with events and gatherings at the U.N. General Assembly. Instead, he offered his deputies—neither of whom worked at the State Department throughout 2021 nor the Afghanistan withdrawal."

Blinken’s decision to defy a congressional subpoena angered GOP committee members, including chairman Michael McCaul (R., Texas), who is now pushing a measure to formally hold the secretary of state in contempt of Congress. If approved, Blinken would make history as the first secretary of state to be held in contempt of Congress, a misdemeanor crime punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and potential jail time. The Biden-Harris administration declined to prosecute Attorney General Merrick Garland after the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress in June.

As the Foreign Affairs Committee gaveled on Tuesday morning, McCaul announced that Blinken chose to "willingly defy this subpoena." The hearing concluded shortly after, with McCaul saying the committee would reconvene today to "begin the formal process of holding the secretary in contempt of Congress."

The State Department has long accused McCaul’s committee of pursuing a politically motivated investigation into Afghanistan and says that Blinken would never have been able to make the Sept. 24 hearing due to his obligations at the U.N.

Committee sources, however, say that Blinken was offered any day in September to appear for testimony and that the State Department failed to select another day of its choosing. Lawmakers also were not informed of Blinken’s schedule in advance, leading them to choose today’s date for the hearing.

Additionally, Blinken’s public schedule lists no appointments for today until 1:30 p.m. Blinken posted a video of himself on social media traveling to the U.N. around 10 minutes before the committee hearing convened.

The contempt resolution, a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, places blame for the Afghanistan withdrawal squarely on Blinken’s shoulders, saying his appearance before the committee is critical to understanding a series of missteps that only became clear years after the Biden-Harris administration abandoned Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is now "the most gender-oppressive regime in the world as well as a breeding ground for terrorism, and the United States’ chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan kick-started aggression from America’s adversaries like Russia, China, and Iran," the resolution states. "Much of the accountability for the failures involved in that withdrawal belongs with Secretary Blinken, as head of the State Department. As such, only Secretary Blinken can provide critical answers" needed to inform the committee’s work.

The resolution also details how the State Department systematically stonewalled the committee’s multi-year investigation into the Afghanistan debacle, resulting in several subpoenas for documents and a near-constant tug-of-war between Biden-Harris administration officials and GOP lawmakers.

"Secretary Blinken's pattern of obstruction throughout the course of this Committee's investigation is consistent with a finding of contempt now," it states.

"Over the course of the Committee’s inquiry, the State Department has withheld relevant documents and witnesses from the Committee. This obstruction directly involved Secretary Blinken and was effectuated under his leadership by subordinates. Since the inception of the investigation, the Committee was forced to issue two subpoenas compelling the production of State Department documents vital to the Committee’s investigation into the withdrawal from Afghanistan."

In total, the Foreign Affairs Committee issued three subpoenas and one superseding subpoena due to the State Department’s obstinance. These resulted in two aborted contempt proceedings that were only removed from the congressional docket after the State Department conceded ground and turned over key documents about the withdrawal.

"The Committee finds itself in the same position with regard to its third and fourth subpoena, which call for Secretary Blinken’s public testimony on the findings of Chairman McCaul’s Report," the contempt resolution states. "As an accommodation to Secretary Blinken’s travel schedule, the Committee issued its superseding subpoena amending the hearing date from September 19 to September 24, 2024, when Secretary Blinken, by his own admission, would be in the United States."

Blinken was needed at Tuesday’s hearing to address 23 separate legislative proposals aimed at responding to the Biden-Harris administration’s failures in Afghanistan and reforming the State Department’s procedure in the case of future emergencies abroad.

Earlier this month, the Foreign Affairs Committee released the findings of its Afghanistan probe, providing previously unknown details about the scope of cash and sensitive information left behind when the United States fled.

Investigators determined through scores of interviews and subpoenaed documents that the State Department was wholly unprepared to leave the country, resulting in employees burning classified documents outside the embassy in Kabul.

A cascading series of planning failures by the State Department, the report concluded, led to the deaths of American military members and provided the conditions for the Taliban to quickly retake control of the country, allowing it to become a safe haven for terrorists.

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