The House Foreign Affairs Committee is currently conducting one of many investigations into the failures of the Biden administration over the past two years. Specifically, the chair of the committee, Congressman Michael McCaul of Texas, is looking into the United States disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. As part of that investigation, McCaul requested a series of “dissent channel” memos written by career diplomats who warned that the hasty withdrawal could lead to dire consequences for both our own troops and our Afghan partners. But Secretary Antony Blinken refused to turn them over, leading McCaul to issue a subpoena to obtain the documents. Thus far, that hasn’t worked either because Blinken is defying the subpoena. This could, or at least should lead to an unprecedented situation where the Secretary of State could be found in contempt of Congress. (Government Executive)

The State Department is not backing down from its commitment to protect the “dissent channel” established for its career diplomats, telling lawmakers that complying with their subpoena would violate the trust the agency has established with its workforce.

The union that represents career Foreign Service officers applauded State’s decision on Thursday, warning that betraying that trust would make employees think twice before conveying their honest professional opinions. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, earlier this week issued the subpoena for the dissent channel cable written by State employees in July 2021 allegedly warning of potential governmental collapse in Afghanistan.

The first thing to recognize about this refusal is that there is no law preventing the release of the dissent channel cables to Congress. It’s merely a “tradition” that they are kept secret. And were anyone to propose such a law it would be a complete farce. Congress is charged with performing oversight of the executive branch.

The basis for the refusal is a claim that it could have a “chilling effect” on career diplomats in the future. That’s also nonsensical for a number of reasons. Those cables contain opinions that were given to the Secretary of State for his consideration while making a critical decision. There is also nothing that should be considered “classified” about them since the events in question are long over. And even if they were classified, the committee could review them in a classified setting.

What’s really going on here is obvious. Blinken doesn’t want the cables to come to light because it would prove that experienced personnel were warning the Biden administration in advance that a rapid pullout in the manner being proposed could lead to disastrous consequences. And, of course, it did. Thirteen of our troops were killed in those chaotic final days and countless people were left behind to be victimized by the Taliban. Blinken is simply attempting to spare Joe Biden further embarrassment by hiding this information.

Instead, a State Department spokesperson said that Blinken is willing to provide “a briefing” to the committee about the content of the cables. But accepting a briefing means that Blinken gets to spin the information however he likes and omit any portions that make the White House look incompetent. The committee obviously deserves to see the information in an unfiltered fashion as part of an effort to make sure that we avoid a similar debacle in the future.

This is yet another example of how the Biden administration considers itself to be completely above the law and not accountable to anyone. When a committee run by Democrats ran into resistance from potential witnesses, they were quick to break out subpoenas and threats of contempt charges. But now that the shoe is on the other foot, they believe they can simply ignore the law. It’s a pathetic show that we’re witnessing, but we probably should have expected this.