Senior investigator of House Foreign Affairs Committee resigns over committee’s ‘disappointing lack of courage’

A senior investigator at the House Foreign Affairs Committee has resigned over what he says is Chairman Michael McCaul’s (R-TX) failure “to seek answers & accountability” on the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Jerry Dunleavy announced his resignation Monday over his frustration with the committee. Dunleavy worked at the Washington Examiner as a reporter from 2019 to 2023 until his departure to work for the committee.

“I believe the Committee’s work has been important, and the investigation has repeatedly uncovered evidence further solidifying the undeniable fact that the dangerous decision by President Biden — one strongly supported by Vice President Harris — to fully and rapidly pull out all U.S. troops from Afghanistan with no plan for how to deal with the inevitable fallout was a deadly disaster,” Dunleavy wrote in his resignation letter posted on X.

“Even as I applaud the Committee’s successes, many of which have come because of your continued leadership on this issue, I must also recognize and highlight the investigation’s faults, particularly the missed opportunities resulting from the Committee’s unwillingness or inability to pursue critical testimony and from its failure to go down key investigative avenues,” Dunleavy wrote to McCaul.

“McCaul & the Committee made promises to the Abbey Gate Gold Star families & to the American public at large — & those promises simply have not been kept,” he wrote on X.

Dunleavy addressed the public nature of his resignation, saying he “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 & my conscience simply will not allow me to be silent.” 

Dunleavy said that for a year, he pushed the committee to “do the right thing” and run a “serious” investigation in pursuit of the truth. However, he said, “It has become undeniably clear to me that McCaul & his team are unwilling to take even the most basic steps necessary to ensure that President Biden, VP Harris, & all the top Biden-Harris diplomatic & national security & military leaders are made to answer for the horrors which unfolded & continue to unfold in Afghanistan & around the world.”

“The Committee’s disappointing lack of courage & lack of moral clarity just cannot go unremarked,” Dunleavy added.

While Dunleavy was pleased with some interviews the committee had conducted, he expressed frustration with those he sought but could not attain. He said he pursued interviews with key military operatives involved in the withdrawal as well as those with knowledge of any U.S.-Taliban relations, but he said those efforts did not come to fruition.

In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Emily Cassil, a spokeswoman for McCaul and the committee, noted the legal parameters surrounding congressional authority as well as a lack of cooperation from White House officials, which she said put limitations on the investigation. A report will be released in September detailing more information about the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which includes testimony from approximately 20 senior Biden administration officials, according to Cassil.

“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. 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 added that it is the only group investigating the United States’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and that it has been comprehensively seeking answers and scrutinizing the Biden administration in pursuit of the truth. However, while challenges over jurisdiction exist, the committee said that hasn’t kept it from finding ways to obtain the necessary information.

In his resignation letter, Dunleavy noted House Republicans’ majority in the lower chamber, but he said McCaul has not utilized that majority in the ways that the House Oversight Committee, for example, has. He also argued that there is a larger problem afoot in Washington, D.C.

“As I repeatedly made clear to the Committee, I fear that those in the halls of power — the White House, State Dept, intel community, Pentagon — have failed to learn the needed lessons from America’s defeat in the war in Afghanistan. Washington has a widespread culture of unaccountability, & that has been especially true related to this war,” Dunleavy said on X.

“I fear that this Committee’s investigation will embolden, rather than remedy, that perverse culture,” he said.