A senior investigator on the Foreign Affairs Committee’s Afghanistan withdrawal probe surprisingly resigned over what he characterizes as a ‘disappointing lack of courage’ and ‘broken promises.’
The committee is investigating the United States’ deadly exit from Kabul in 2021, during which 13 U.S. service members, and nearly 200 Afghan allies, lost their lives in a terror ISIS-K bombing at Abbey Gate.
The explosion occurred as U.S. troops were evacuating Americans and partners from the Kabul airport. To date, no one has taken responsibility for the frenzied withdrawal that led to bloodshed – and not a single Biden administration official has been fired or resigned.
Jerry Dunleavy, a former journalist and published author of a book about the disastrous withdrawal, took a job on the committee as a senior investigator one year ago to help build up a now over 600-page report set to be released in September.
But Dunleavy, who had no prior Hill experience, shockingly announced he would be ‘resigning in protest’ Monday because he wanted an even more rigorous investigation.
A senior investigator on the Foreign Affairs Committee’s Afghanistan withdrawal probe surprisingly resigned over what he characterizes as a ‘disappointing lack of courage’ and ‘broken promises’
His litany of specific complaints ranged from the committee not using his proposed titles for hearings to his ‘suggestions’ for interviews being passed over by more senior members of the committee to ‘indecision’ by Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas.
He also complained that the role of Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic nominee for president, should have been looked at more seriously.
‘I did not come lightly to this decision to resign & to blow the whistle publicly, but I could not be a part of this sham any longer,’ Jerry Dunleavy wrote on X.
McCaul, Dunleavy claimed, ‘has failed to wield this awesome power with anything resembling strength or consistency.’
But Dunleavy claimed it had ‘failed to properly investigate all aspects of the ISIS-K bombing,’ and had broken the promises it made to the Gold Star families who lost loved ones in the attack to get to the bottom of it.
The committee pushed back on Dunleavy’s characterization, and insisted their hard work would be reflected in the forthcoming report.
‘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,’ committee spokesperson Emily Cassil told DailyMail.com.
‘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. Its release will not be the end of our work, but a crucial next step toward ensuring the personal accountability that the Biden-Harris administration refused to provide.’
The committee has conducted transcribed interviews with 20 senior administration officials, including former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, John Bass, who led the evacuation after Kabul fell, former State Department spokesperson Ned Price, and the chiefs of staff to Sec. of State Antony Blinken and Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin, among others.
Dunleavy acknowledged the committee had already interviewed ‘an impressive number of State Department witnesses and has extracted devastating testimony from them.’
But he called out a ‘repeated refusal to interview a number of key high-ranking witnesses,’ including: Tracey Jacobson, former head of the Afghanistan coordination task force, now the nominee for ambassador to Iraq, Wendy Sherman, the former deputy secretary of State, and Victoria Nuland, the former under secretary of state for political affairs.
He fired off a list of names of defense officials who he also thought should be brought in for testimony. The Defense Department falls under the Armed Services’ Committee’s jurisdiction, not Foreign Affairs, so McCaul’s committee would have no subpoena power to bring them in.
Videos and images of the 2021 withdrawal show U.S. military aircraft evacuating the country as desperate residents cling on to the exterior of the plane to try and escape Taliban rule
The withdrawal culminated with tens of thousands of Afghans attempting to evacuate the country on U.S. military transports
‘The House Armed Services Committee has failed to investigate these matters itself, and has often been slow and reluctant to assist our own committee, but that is no excuse for inaction on our part,’ Dunleavy said.
He lamented that U.S. Central Command had only given the committee a classified briefing – with no transcription and no counter-questioning – and that the committee failed to bring in Ross Wilson, the last US ambassador to Afghanistan, for a public hearing.
Dunleavy directed his heaviest critiques at the chief investigator he served under, Mary Kabir-Seraj Bischoping.
Bischoping, Dunleavy said, told him to bring in Wilson for public testimony ‘would make us look like bullies.’
He also had deeply differing views from Bischoping on Zalmay Khalilzad, the former special representative for Afghan reconciliation.
A suicide bombing during the withdrawal claimed the lives of 13 U.S. service members
Caskets for the 13 fallen service members arrived back to the U.S. aboard a military C-17 on August 29, 2021
After a transcribed interview, it became ‘clearer than ever to me how dishonest Khalilzad continued to be about the nature of the taliban and about his actions as a negotiator in Doha,’ Dunleavy said.
Bischoping, meanwhile, praised Khalilzad for giving unusually candid testimony in a briefing to committee members, Dunleavy said.
And after a February hearing where he largely evaded scrutiny entitled ‘How the Biden Administration Failed to Enforce the Doha Agreement’, Dunleavy said she took a selfie with him. Dunleavy lamented that the hearing ‘cast the deeply flawed Doha Agreement in a favorable light.’
He said Bischoping’s selfie was ‘highly inappropriate and potentially harmful to the optics of the investigation.’
The Doha agreement, brokered under the Trump administration in 2020 by Khalilzad, brought an end to the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan in 2021. But adhering to the conditions of the deal, like reducing US air raids, allowed the Taliban to quickly regain control of Afghanistan.
The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) felt abandoned and folded to the Taliban more quickly than anyone had ever expected.
He also said the committee had not spent enough time questioning General Mark Milley, the former chairman of the join chiefs, or Gen. Mark Mackenzie, former head of Central Command.
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