Pentagon plans to declassify Afghanistan withdrawal documents

EXCLUSIVE: A new Pentagon review of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is set to declassify previously restricted materials from earlier investigations, reopening scrutiny of key decisions made during the Biden administration’s botched 2021 exit from the country. 

The review will include interview transcripts, internal documents and prior findings that officials say were overclassified, according to Pentagon adviser Stu Scheller.

“We plan to declassify all of the documents that we source in this investigation — all the interview transcripts, all the previous investigations that the Biden administration did that have been overclassified,” Scheller told Digital. “We’re going to declassify all of it so that everyone can make assessments for themselves.”

Unlike earlier reviews that cataloged failures but stopped short of pinning down individual responsibility, this Pentagon effort is examining a broader set of records and conducting extensive interviews with both senior military leaders and rank-and-file troops — a scope officials say could reopen unanswered questions about who made the key decisions during the 2021 withdrawal.

“There will be accountability,” Scheller said. 

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“We’ve talked to many people, all the key generals… and we also interviewed thousands of young service members,” Scheller told Digital of the report. “One of the things they said was that they didn’t feel like their experiences were validated.”

President Donald Trump has repeatedly blasted the previous Biden administration over the Abbey Gate tragedy that killed 13 U.S. service members, calling the 2021 withdrawal “a Biden disaster” and “the lowest point in the history of our country.” The administration in May 2025 ordered a new Pentagon review as part of what officials described as his push for accountability.

Scheller’s role in the review marks a striking reversal for a Marine officer who was previously punished after publicly criticizing the military’s handling of the withdrawal.

Then a lieutenant commanding an infantry training unit at Camp Lejeune, Scheller drew national attention in August 2021 after posting a viral video in uniform demanding accountability from senior leaders. He was relieved of command, placed in pretrial confinement and later pleaded guilty at a court-martial.

“I just felt like there wasn’t another voice that was going to advocate for the emperor’s not wearing clothes,” Scheller said. “I didn’t do it haphazardly.”

“God was with me on that one. I got through it. Here I am influencing the changes I originally pointed out.”

British and American security forces maintain order among Afghan evacuees inside Abbey Gate in Kabul on Aug. 25, 2021, during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. (Marcus Lam/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)

Previous investigations by Congress, the Pentagon and federal watchdogs identified a range of failures in planning and executing the withdrawal, including gaps in evacuation efforts, intelligence assessments and senior-level decision-making.

A Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee report found the State Department failed to develop a plan to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies despite mounting warnings that Kabul could fall, delaying evacuation efforts until the Taliban entered the capital.

The report also said U.S. officials were tracking credible threats of a suicide attack in the days leading up to the Abbey Gate bombing — including intelligence pointing to a potential ISIS-K attack at the airport — but operations at the gate continued.

Those conditions are now being reexamined as part of the Pentagon’s review, including how actions by Marines on the ground were recognized.

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Scheller said his team focused early on the unit stationed at Abbey Gate, where several Marines had been nominated for higher awards that were later downgraded during the approval process.

“They had actually submitted awards that were downgraded. So we didn’t create these awards out of nothing,” Scheller said. “All seven of these awards were submitted and we had the formal paperwork from the original write-up.”

Evacuees wait to board a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 23. (Sgt. Isaiah Campbell/U.S. Marine Corps)

The upgrades affected Marines from Company G, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, including cases where commendation medals were elevated to include valor devices and, in one instance, a Bronze Star was upgraded to reflect combat heroism.

The bombing at Abbey Gate killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 150 Afghans, marking the deadliest day for U.S. forces in Afghanistan in years.

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The Biden administration has defended its handling of the withdrawal, arguing the decision ended America’s longest war and prevented further U.S. casualties, while accusing critics of politicizing the issue.

A spokesperson for former President Joe Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.