diff --git a/clients/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/admin/AdminClientTestUtils.java b/clients/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/admin/AdminClientTestUtils.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..88b2148d364
--- /dev/null
+++ b/clients/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/admin/AdminClientTestUtils.java
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.kafka.clients.admin;
+
+import java.util.Map;
+import org.apache.kafka.common.TopicPartition;
+import org.apache.kafka.common.internals.KafkaFutureImpl;
+
+public class AdminClientTestUtils {
+
+    /**
+     * Helper to create a ListPartitionReassignmentsResult instance for a given Throwable.
+     * ListPartitionReassignmentsResult's constructor is only accessible from within the
+     * admin package.
+     */
+    public static ListPartitionReassignmentsResult listPartitionReassignmentsResult(Throwable t) {
+        KafkaFutureImpl<Map<TopicPartition, PartitionReassignment>> future = new KafkaFutureImpl<>();
+        future.completeExceptionally(t);
+        return new ListPartitionReassignmentsResult(future);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/admin/TopicCommand.scala b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/admin/TopicCommand.scala
index 8c1629bc0d4..16075d0ff90 100755
--- a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/admin/TopicCommand.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/admin/TopicCommand.scala
@@ -28,11 +28,11 @@ import kafka.utils.Implicits._
 import kafka.utils._
 import kafka.zk.{AdminZkClient, KafkaZkClient}
 import org.apache.kafka.clients.CommonClientConfigs
-import org.apache.kafka.clients.admin.{Admin, ConfigEntry, ListPartitionReassignmentsOptions, ListTopicsOptions, NewPartitions, NewTopic, PartitionReassignment, Config => JConfig}
+import org.apache.kafka.clients.admin.{Admin, ConfigEntry, ListTopicsOptions, NewPartitions, NewTopic, PartitionReassignment, Config => JConfig}
 import org.apache.kafka.common.{Node, TopicPartition, TopicPartitionInfo}
 import org.apache.kafka.common.config.ConfigResource.Type
 import org.apache.kafka.common.config.{ConfigResource, TopicConfig}
-import org.apache.kafka.common.errors.{InvalidTopicException, TopicExistsException, UnsupportedVersionException}
+import org.apache.kafka.common.errors.{ClusterAuthorizationException, InvalidTopicException, TopicExistsException, UnsupportedVersionException}
 import org.apache.kafka.common.internals.Topic
 import org.apache.kafka.common.security.JaasUtils
 import org.apache.kafka.common.utils.{Time, Utils}
@@ -284,13 +284,12 @@ object TopicCommand extends Logging {
 
     private def listAllReassignments(topicPartitions: util.Set[TopicPartition]): Map[TopicPartition, PartitionReassignment] = {
       try {
-        adminClient.listPartitionReassignments(topicPartitions, new ListPartitionReassignmentsOptions)
-          .reassignments().get().asScala
+        adminClient.listPartitionReassignments(topicPartitions).reassignments().get().asScala
       } catch {
         case e: ExecutionException =>
           e.getCause match {
-            case ex: UnsupportedVersionException =>
-              logger.debug("Couldn't query reassignments through the AdminClient API", ex)
+            case ex @ (_: UnsupportedVersionException | _: ClusterAuthorizationException) =>
+              logger.debug(s"Couldn't query reassignments through the AdminClient API: ${ex.getMessage}", ex)
               Map()
             case t => throw t
           }
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/unit/kafka/admin/TopicCommandWithAdminClientTest.scala b/core/src/test/scala/unit/kafka/admin/TopicCommandWithAdminClientTest.scala
index fdf110cbcef..a1e49e46cb9 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/unit/kafka/admin/TopicCommandWithAdminClientTest.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/unit/kafka/admin/TopicCommandWithAdminClientTest.scala
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ import org.apache.kafka.clients.CommonClientConfigs
 import org.apache.kafka.clients.admin._
 import org.apache.kafka.common.TopicPartition
 import org.apache.kafka.common.config.{ConfigException, ConfigResource, TopicConfig}
+import org.apache.kafka.common.errors.ClusterAuthorizationException
 import org.apache.kafka.common.errors.TopicExistsException
 import org.apache.kafka.common.internals.Topic
 import org.apache.kafka.common.network.ListenerName
@@ -36,6 +37,7 @@ import org.apache.kafka.common.security.auth.SecurityProtocol
 import org.junit.Assert.{assertEquals, assertFalse, assertTrue}
 import org.junit.rules.TestName
 import org.junit.{After, Before, Rule, Test}
+import org.mockito.Mockito
 import org.scalatest.Assertions.{fail, intercept}
 
 import scala.jdk.CollectionConverters._
@@ -802,4 +804,29 @@ class TopicCommandWithAdminClientTest extends KafkaServerTestHarness with Loggin
     assertFalse(output.contains(Topic.GROUP_METADATA_TOPIC_NAME))
   }
 
+  @Test
+  def testDescribeDoesNotFailWhenListingReassignmentIsUnauthorized(): Unit = {
+    adminClient = Mockito.spy(adminClient)
+    topicService = AdminClientTopicService(adminClient)
+
+    val result = AdminClientTestUtils.listPartitionReassignmentsResult(
+      new ClusterAuthorizationException("Unauthorized"))
+
+    // Passing `null` here to help the compiler disambiguate the `doReturn` methods,
+    // compilation for scala 2.12 fails otherwise.
+    Mockito.doReturn(result, null).when(adminClient).listPartitionReassignments(
+      Set(new TopicPartition(testTopicName, 0)).asJava
+    )
+
+    adminClient.createTopics(
+      Collections.singletonList(new NewTopic(testTopicName, 1, 1.toShort))
+    ).all().get()
+    waitForTopicCreated(testTopicName)
+
+    val output = TestUtils.grabConsoleOutput(
+      topicService.describeTopic(new TopicCommandOptions(Array("--topic", testTopicName))))
+    val rows = output.split("\n")
+    assertEquals(2, rows.size)
+    rows(0).startsWith(s"Topic:$testTopicName\tPartitionCount:1")
+  }
 }