On Wednesday, the Department of State violated a congressional subpoena deadline to hand over a sensitive diplomatic cable about the United States' exit from Afghanistan.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously told Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, that he opposed providing the message.
The cable was sent through the U.S. Agency for International Development's Dissent Channel, a messaging framework for foreign service officers to criticize U.S. policy.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the cable documents 23 diplomats sounding the alarm in July 2021 about the U.S.-backed Afghan government's imminent collapse to the Taliban.
McCaul issued a subpoena in March requesting access to the cable as part of the Oversight Committee's investigation into President Joe Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan two years ago.
"We have made multiple good faith attempts to find common ground so we could see this critical piece of information," McCaul stated in a press release.
"Unfortunately, Secretary Blinken has refused to provide the Dissent Cable and his response to the cable, forcing me to issue my first subpoena as chairman of this committee," he added.
State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told The Hill that discussions about the next steps were ongoing, with Blinken proposing to brief the committee about the cable's contents without providing the document.
Blinken has stated his hesitancy to provide the actual cable is due to fears over the integrity of the Dissent Channel's anonymity, with the American Foreign Service Association backing his position.
McCaul's office did not immediately respond to The Hill for comment.