Media Contact 202-226-8467

Washington, D.C. Today, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul announced another release of transcribed interviews with State Department officials charged with coordinating the United States’ civilian evacuation from Afghanistan. On Monday, the committee released its first tranche of transcribed interviews with State Department officials.

The transcribed interviews were conducted over several months and are minimally redacted.

Transcribed interviews were conducted with State Department officials, including:

  • Acting Deputy Secretary of State John Bass, former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2017-2020; led State Department evacuation operations in Afghanistan after Kabul fell to the Taliban;
  • Consul General Jayne Howell, former U.S. Consul General for Ankara, Turkey; led State Department consular evacuation operations in Afghanistan after Kabul’s fall; and
  • Consul General James DeHart, former U.S. Assistant Chief of Mission to Afghanistan from 2018-2019; served as deputy to Acting Deputy Secretary Bass after Kabul’s fall.

See the committee’s first tranche of released transcribed interviews here

To read the committee’s interim report on the Biden administration’s disastrous 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, click here

###