Investigator Resigns to Protest Republican Probe of Joe Biden’s Afghanistan Disaster

House Committee On Foreign Affairs Examines The Biden Administration's Afghanistan Withdra
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John Hayward

Jerry Dunleavy, a senior investigator for the Republican House Foreign Affairs Committee probe of the Biden-Harris disaster in Afghanistan, resigned on Monday to protest what he described as “investigative paralysis” and the failure of Chair Michael McCaul (R-TX) to aggressively pursue the inquest.

“There is definitely a significant bias from the chairman, downward, toward not really looking to hold the military commanders and generals accountable for what happened,” Dunleavy said in his resignation letter, which he posted on social media.

Dunleavy is a former journalist with the Washington Examiner and the author of a book on the Afghanistan withdrawal, titled Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End. He joined the House Foreign Affairs Committee probe about a year ago as a senior investigator, tasked with contributing to the committee’s 600-page final report on the disaster, which is due in September. It was Dunleavy’s first time working for a congressional committee, and his resignation letter indicated it was not a positive experience.

Dunleavy said he was still committed to holding the Biden-Harris administration responsible for its “disastrous and deadly Afghanistan withdrawal” but had come to doubt the commitment of committee leaders:

While the Committee’s investigation has indeed unearthed further evidence detailing the Biden-Harris Admin’s responsibility for the horrific events of August 2021, and for the dangerous global fallout which followed, McCaul and his team have also been derelict in their duty to pursue answers for the Abbey Gate Gold Star families, to seek the proper documents, to bring in the proper witnesses, to ask the tough questions, to fully pursue the truth without fear or favor, and to do everything in the Committee’s power to ensure that a deadly humiliation like this never happens again. 

McCaul and the Committee made promises to the Abbey Gate Gold Star families, and to the American public at large – and those promises simply have not been kept.

Dunleavy said the investigation became a “sham,” and he was weary of “pushing the Committee to do the right thing, and to run a serious investigation that relentlessly searches for the truth.”

With regret, he said it became “undeniably clear” that the committee was “unwilling to take even the most basic steps necessary” to hold President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and their top diplomatic and national security leaders responsible for “the horrors which unfolded, and continue to unfold, in Afghanistan and around the world.”

Dunleavy said committee hearings went soft on key players in the disaster, including former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, former U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Chief Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, and former U.S. Special Representative to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad. He said the committee refused to “drag in” other key witnesses from the State Department, CENTCOM, and other agencies.

“House Republicans had (and, for at least a few more months, still have) a congressional majority which empowered them to run serious and credible oversight investigations,” he said, lamenting McCaul’s failure to “wield this awesome power with anything resembling strength or consistency.”

Dunleavy said he was resigning with a heavy heart because he still feels a “significant obligation” to the Gold Star families of the American service members killed during the botched Biden-Harris withdrawal and to all of the U.S. service members who fought and died in Afghanistan over the years.

“They all deserve to know how this Committee has refused to fulfill its important obligation to thoroughly expose the Biden-Harris Admin’s duplicity and its atrocious decision-making during America’s retreat and defeat in Afghanistan,” he said in his scathing resignation letter.

“Washington has a widespread culture of unaccountability, and that has been especially true related to this war. I fear that this Committee’s investigation will embolden, rather than remedy, that perverse culture,” he regretfully concluded.

In subsequent posts on X and interviews given after he resigned from the committee, Dunleavy said the committee was particularly delinquent in holding Harris accountable for her role in the deadly Afghanistan debacle.

“McCaul hasn’t even sent a press release or tweet calling Harris out, let alone done any investigating on her,” he said on Wednesday, dismissing the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s efforts to push back against his resignation letter.

Dunleavy noted that Harris gave an interview after the withdrawal in which she boasted she was the “last person in the room” when the bug-out decision was made, and she still felt “comfortable” with the decision despite its horrific consequences.

Dunleavy marveled:

Kamala is now the Dem nominee for President. Kamala was in full support of Biden’s debacle in Afghanistan. Yet the Committee tasked with investigating the withdrawal hasn’t even put out a press release on her role – let alone done the investigative work I said they should do.

Dunleavy told the Hill on Monday that he “received pushback” from his superiors when he pressed the committee to take action against Harris. He said investigating her role was more urgent than ever now that Biden has been pushed aside to make her the Democrat nominee for president in 2024.

“I don’t want there to be more unnecessary Gold Star families in the future,” he said in his telephone interview with the Hill.

“That’s what I worry about, if we don’t pursue real accountability and pursue real answers here is that there aren’t going to be lessons learned. There’s not going to be accountability, no one’s going to feel like there needs to be a big mindset change,” he said.

“No one’s gonna really absorb the fact that this was a big loss. We lost a two-decade war, and we better get serious if we don’t want to lose the next one,” he warned.

House Foreign Affairs Committee spokesperson Emily Cassil objected to some of Dunleavy’s criticisms in an interview with the UK Daily Mail on Monday.

“Having worked for Chairman McCaul for two years, I can tell you he pours his heart and soul into getting answers for our Gold Star families and Afghanistan veterans,” Cassil said. “That will be evident in a few weeks when he releases his expansive report, which is the result of thousands of hours of work on both the staff and member level.”

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