GOP threatens Blinken contempt charge over Afghanistan docs

By FARNOUSH AMIRI
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s chairman has threatened to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress if the State Department doesn’t turn over classified cables related to the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul pledged in a letter Friday to escalate the battle with the State Department over a dissent cable written by diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul shortly before the August 2021 withdrawal. The deadline for the State Department to respond is Thursday. The State Department says providing the cable would threaten the integrity of the classified reporting process.