House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul is threatening to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress. (Getty Images)
He also accused Blinken of choosing "politics over policy" with the State Department’s decision to "withhold" the documents.
It’s notably harsh language for McCaul, whose relationship with Blinken is relatively more cordial than that of other House Republican committee chairs investigating the Biden administration.
In his letter, he noted multiple instances in which McCaul accused the department of stonewalling, including after he first requested notes from interviews with State officials taken by then-Ambassador Dan Smith, who led the AAR in September 2023.
He also listed ways in which the committee sought to accommodate the department. For example, McCaul wrote that the committee offered to redact names and address security concerns after State officials told him providing the notes would have a "significant chilling effect on the Department’s ability to conduct thorough and impactful lessons learned efforts to improve our foreign policy-making."
THINK THE US EXIT FROM AFGHANISTAN WAS BAD? LOOK WHAT'S BREWING IN THE PACIFIC
The Afghanistan report was critical of President Biden's decision to hand over control of Bagram Air Base to the Afghan government. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The report said President Biden’s decision to follow through with former President Donald Trump’s vow to withdraw troops from Afghanistan – and to set a Sept. 11 deadline for it – ultimately "compounded the difficulties the Department faced in mitigating the loss of the military’s key enablers."
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It was also critical of the Biden administration’s decision to hand over control of Bagram Air Base to the Afghan government, a decision that also earned Biden bipartisan condemnation from national security hawks.
Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department about McCaul’s letter but did not immediately hear back.
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com
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