Secretary of State Blinken subpoenaed by House committee over Afghanistan withdrawal

House lawmakers on Tuesday subpoenaed Secretary of State Antony Blinken for refusing to testify about the Biden administration's 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a letter written by Republican chairman Michael McCaul of Texas that Blinken could be held in contempt if he does not appear before the committee on Sept. 19.

“It is unfortunate that the Committee has once again issued unnecessary subpoenas instead of continuing to negotiate in good faith with the State Department,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement, Reuters reported.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department.

McCaul in May called for Secretary of State Blinken to appear at a September hearing on the committee's report on the Afghanistan withdrawal investigation. McCaul said the State Department repeatedly did not provide a date for Blinken to appear before lawmakers.

McCaul said in the letter that current and former State Department officials confirmed that Secretary Blinken was the “final decision maker” on withdrawal and evacuations.

“The Committee is holding this hearing because the State Department was at the center of the Afghanistan withdrawal and served as the highest authority during Operation Noncombatant Evacuation in August,” he wrote.

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A U.S. Air Force loadmaster and pilot from the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron load passengers onto a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III in support of Afghan evacuations at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 24, 2021. (Getty Images)

“You are therefore in a position to provide input to the committee's consideration of possible legislation aimed at helping to prevent the catastrophic error of withdrawal, including possible reform of the Department of Defence's legislative powers,” McCaul added.

The committee has been investigating for years the chaotic withdrawal that left 13 U.S. troops dead.

Former President Donald Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery last month to take part in a wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate 13 service members. Trump and Republicans have long criticized Biden for the withdrawal, which saw the Taliban retake Afghanistan after more than two decades of U.S. occupation.

Republican presidential nominee and former president Donald Trump stands with Bill Barnett (left), whose grandson, Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover, was killed in the Abbey Gate bombing, during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on August 26, 2024. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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According to the New York Post, Trump told podcaster Rex Friedman on Tuesday that the parents of the fallen service members “lost their children because of Biden and Kamala, and because of the terrible way they were handled, like they had a gun held to their head.”