White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she does not “have any information” about reports that Afghanistan’s president fled the country with millions of dollars as Taliban insurgents took control.
“I don’t have any information on what … the former president did when he fled the country,” Psaki told reporters on Wednesday.
Last week, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Tajikistan accused Ashraf Ghani of leaving Kabul with $169 million stuffed inside suitcases as Kabul fell. Ambassador Mohammad Zahir Aghbar called it “a betrayal of the state and the nation” and urged international officials to arrest him.
‘MISCALCULATION’: BIDEN STRATEGY TO EVACUATE AFGHAN REFUGEES UNDER FIRE
A Russian news agency had previously reported that Ghani fled with four vehicles and a helicopter full of cash. It is not known whether the United States helped Ghani escape.
Ghani has denied the charges, calling them “completely baseless” in a video from the United Arab Emirates, where he sought refuge.
“I was forced to leave Afghanistan with one set of traditional clothes, a vest, and the sandals I was wearing,” he said in a video posted to Facebook. “If I had stayed, countless of my countrymen would be martyred, and Kabul would face destruction and turn into ruins that could result to a human catastrophe for its 6 million residents.”
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Washington’s support for Ghani has come under scrutiny after the Afghan government and military forces collapsed to the Taliban earlier this month. U.S. officials are evacuating thousands of Americans and vulnerable Afghans who aided the two-decade military mission in the country.
