Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has agreed to testify for a congressional investigation into the Biden administration’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan — but with a catch that may still result in a subpoena being issued, a top House Republican announced on Monday.

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX), who had threatened to subpoena Psaki if she did not stop dodging an interview after several months of correspondence, said her counsel sent a response last week, and now a transcribed interview has been scheduled for July 26.

Yet the issue is not fully resolved, as McCaul said in a new letter to Psaki that it is his understanding that she “conditioned” her appearance upon receiving approval from the White House. The chairman noted that his committee is willing to attend any meetings geared toward overcoming the hurdle.

“While I hope to proceed with your voluntary appearance, I expect you to have resolved the conditionality of your appearance by June 26, 2024,” McCaul said. “If not, I must treat your June 12 response as a refusal to appear and you will be compelled to sit for a deposition on July 26, 2024.”

Psaki served as Biden’s White House press secretary from the beginning of his administration on January 20, 2021, to May 13, 2022, and then was hired by MSNBC. During her time at the left-leaning cable news network, where she hosts her own show, Psaki has continued to defend Biden while disparaging former President Donald Trump and the Republican lawmakers who back him.

McCaul, who has been trying to get Psaki to sit for an interview since September, began signaling the prospect of a subpoena in May after Psaki’s new book, “Say More,” drew controversy for falsely claiming Biden never checked his watch during a ceremony for U.S. service members killed in a suicide bombing attack on the Kabul airport. The book has since been edited to remove that section.

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Psaki served as an “authoritative source” on the withdrawal of U.S. military troops and civilians in August of 2021, McCaul wrote in his letter, adding how his committee “has a vested interest in understanding those diplomatic and information transmission failures, which led to misrepresentations regarding, amongst other things, coordination with allies, contingency planning, the foreseeability of Afghanistan’s collapse, and the safety of Americans and allies in Afghanistan.”

McCaul added, “As a former public servant, and now, a private citizen in the public sphere, you have a duty to appear before Congress when called upon. Should you wish to avoid being the sole witness to date compelled to appear in this investigation, the limitations imposed on your appearance by the White House must be resolved by June 26, 2024.”

An illegal immigrant from El Salvador was arrested over the weekend and charged with the murder and rape of a Maryland mother of five. 

Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, 23, who police say unlawfully entered the United States in February 2023, was arrested by police and the FBI in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday. He is accused of raping and murdering 37-year-old Rachel Morin six months after illegally crossing the southern U.S. border. Law enforcement said the suspect had been on a “crime spree that started in El Salvador and then multiple cities across the United States.”

Morin was murdered in August 2023 after she went out hiking on the Ma & Pa trail in Harford County, Maryland. She was later found naked in a nearby culvert. 

“Victor Hernandez did not come to this country to make a better life for him or his family, he came here to escape the crimes he committed in El Salvador. He came here to murder Rachel and God-willing, no one else,” Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said on Saturday. “But that should have never been allowed to happen.”

The sheriff also called for the Biden administration to address the ongoing border crisis. 

“I want to now direct these comments to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., and to every member in both chambers of Congress,” he continued. “Here in Harford County we are 1,800 miles away from the Southern border, and the American citizens are not safe because of failed immigration policies. This is the second time in just two years that an innocent Harford County woman has lost her life to a criminal in our country illegally.”

Investigators said that they identified Hernandez because they found his DNA at the murder scene. Police arrested him at a bar in Tulsa and said he “lied about his true identity.” 

Hernandez is also suspected of a January 2023 murder in El Salvador and of assaulting a 9-year-old girl in California. According to the Tulsa Police Department, Hernandez “violently assaulted a 9-year-old girl and her mother during a home invasion” in Los Angeles. 

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Police also said that they believe Hernandez has extensive ties to violent gangs in El Salvador. 

Patricia Morin, the mother of Rachel, discussed that she did not believe that her daughter’s killer was going to be found. 

“At some of the points during this, I didn’t think that we were ever going to have an answer and that it would be a cold case,” she said. “At one point when things looked really bleak and hopeless, the lead detective told me, ‘Patience will win in the end.’”

Illegal immigrants have been arrested this year for a string of high-profile crimes, including the murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia, as lawmakers have called on the Biden administration to enact stricter border security measures.