Jen Psaki Receives Formal Warning from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair: Comply or Risk Enforcement

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki may be facing a congressional subpoena in her future — her very near future, actually.

Rep. Michael McCaul wrote in a June 5 letter to Psaki’s lawyer that the former press secretary had “failed to adequately respond” to earlier correspondence seeking a transcribed interview before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which he chairs.

The Texas Republican offered the attorney, Emily Loeb, three potential dates for Psaki to participate in the interview — one in June and two in July — and said that there would be consequences if he didn’t hear back from her within a week’s time.

“I hope Ms. Psaki chooses to appear voluntarily; otherwise I will be forced to turn to compulsory process,” he wrote.

The letter was first obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller.

“Your client Jen Psaki has failed to adequately respond to my letter dated May 21, 2024, requesting that she appear before the Committee for a transcribed interview relating to my investigation into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan,” McCaul wrote.

“As you know, I requested a response from Ms. Psaki by May 28, 2024, which has now passed,” he added. “Your client’s disregard for my request is an affront to this Committee and the U.S. House of Representatives.”

The committee plans to question Psaki about her time in the Biden administration as part of its investigation into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan than many say was botched under President Joe Biden’s leadership, leading to the deaths of 13 U.S. servicemembers.

Apparently, her only response to McCaul’s previous request for an interview was largely to ignore it, citing unspecified “concerns” from the White House Counsel’s Office.

“I have reviewed the email that was addressed to my staff on May 28, 2024,” he wrote. “I am troubled by your and Ms. Psaki’s stated ‘deference’ to outdated ‘concerns’ from the White House Counsel’s Office.

“Further,” he added, “Ms. Psaki is a private citizen, who has published her insight into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan for public consumption and personal profit. Ms. Psaki’s duty to appear before Congress is manifest, and her former employer’s desire to avoid congressional oversight is not relevant.”

McCaul was apparently referring to Psaki’s book, “Say More,” in which she discussed, for example, the incident in which Biden checked his watch multiple times during the “dignified transfer” ceremony for Americans killed in Afghanistan in 2021 — by claiming that, despite multiple photographs and fact-checks proving otherwise, it never happened.

In April, the House Foreign Affairs Committee issued a statement quoting McCaul as saying that recent revelations made it obvious that there was more investigatory work to be done into the Afghanistan withdrawal.

That statement, the most recent from the committee on the topic of its open investigation into the withdrawal, appears in its entirety below.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul has released the following statement in response to USCENTCOM’s updated after action report on the terrorist attack at Abbey Gate on August 26, 2021. CENTCOM reopened the investigation in response to testimony provided to the committee and because of pressure by the committee’s investigation into the Biden administration’s deadly and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

“While I’m pleased my investigation forced the Biden administration to reopen their investigation into the Abbey Gate attack that led to the deaths of 13 U.S. servicemembers and the injury of 45, it should not have taken this long to get answers. In addition, if congressional Democrats had fulfilled their constitutional obligations and conducted oversight of what happened more than two years ago, much of this information could have come to light then and saved years of anguish and speculation for many. I hope this updated report provides some level of clarity to the families of those who were killed, those who were injured in the attack, and all veterans, especially those who served in Afghanistan.

“This report confirmed what witnesses have told this committee: the Taliban was executing civilians outside the airport. The executions caused mass chaos around the airport as large and desperate crowds of civilians sought to flee, creating a deadly operating environment for U.S. servicemembers at the gates amid significant ISIS-K threats. The report also finally reveals the identity of the Abbey Gate bomber as Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an ISIS-K terrorist who was freed from the Bagram prison by the Taliban.

“With this report revealing the Biden administration has been sitting on critical information about what happened during the emergency evacuation from Afghanistan, it is clear there are many more questions to be answered. I am absolutely determined to see this investigation through to completion and will leave no stone unturned.”