(Headline USA) House Republicans warned former White House press secretary Jen Psaki this week that she could face a subpoena if she continues to delay an interview with the House Foreign Affairs Committee over President Joe Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal.
Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Psaki has dragged her feet on scheduling an interview with the committee, which is investigating the botched military withdrawal from the region that left 13 U.S. service members and dozens more Afghanis dead—as well as stranding hundreds of U.S. citizens in Kabul.
McCaul pointed out that Psaki clearly had no logistical issues discussing the withdrawal since she mentioned it in her new book released this month.
“As a private citizen, willing and able to publish a memoir on her tenure as White House Press Secretary, I encourage Ms. Psaki to refrain from relying on thin legal arguments to dodge her responsibility to appear before Congress,” McCaul wrote to Psaki’s lawyer, Emily Loeb, on Tuesday. “The committee will not tolerate Ms. Psaki’s continued obstruction of its critical investigation.”
In her book, Psaki wrote about the weeks before and after the withdrawal, defending the president’s call. She even falsely claimed that Biden did not look down at his watch during the ceremony for the 13 fallen U.S. service members, despite photo evidence showing he did look at his watch.
Biden appears to check his watch during the dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base. pic.twitter.com/oMsBefnmfS
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 29, 2021
Psaki said last week that she would remove those lines from the book.
“[A] detail in a few lines of the book about the exact number of times he looked at his watch will be removed in future reprints and the ebook,” she said in a statement.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee first tried to interview Psaki last September, while she was still working for the White House.
She deferred to the White House counsel, which refused to grant her testimony.
“It is troubling that Ms. Psaki seeks to profit off the Afghanistan tragedy, and has felt comfortable writing accounts and making them available to the general public, but refuses to make herself available to Congress,” McCaul added.
