Avril Haines

Biden's DNI (2021–25), whose office issued the 2021 UAP preliminary assessment and received the IC IG's 2022 referral of Grusch's complaint.

Current role: President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (from 28 September 2026)

Former roles:

Director of National Intelligence (2021–2025)
Principal Deputy National Security Advisor, Obama White House
Deputy Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Deputy Chief Counsel, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Background

Lawyer and national security official who served as the seventh Director of National Intelligence, and the first woman in the role, from January 2021 to January 2025. Earlier she was deputy director of the CIA and principal deputy national security advisor under President Obama. ODNI under Haines published the June 2021 Preliminary Assessment on UAP and the subsequent consolidated annual reports with the Department of Defense, and it was to her office that the Intelligence Community Inspector General referred David Grusch's complaint in 2022. She has said little on the subject in her own voice. After leaving government she held appointments at Columbia and Oxford, and in June 2026 the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace named her its next president, effective 28 September 2026.

On the record

2024-11 – ODNI and DoD publish the FY2024 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP, the last of her tenure. ODNI page
2023-10 – ODNI and DoD publish the FY2023 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP. Haines issued a statement with the release. ODNI page
2021-11-11 – Our Future in Space, Washington National Cathedral – "The main issues that Congress and others have been concerned about is safety of flight concerns and counterintelligence issues," adding: "Always there's also the question of: is there something else that we simply do not understand, which might come extraterrestrially?" Video · NY Post
2021-06-25 – ODNI publishes the Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, in her official capacity as DNI. Report (PDF)

Reported claims (secondary / anonymous-sourced)

2022-07 – per David Grusch's filing and The Debrief's June 2023 reporting – after deeming Grusch's complaint "credible and urgent", the IC IG submitted a summary to DNI Haines and to the House and Senate intelligence committees. No public statement from Haines on the referral has been located. The Debrief · Filing (PDF)

Timeline of involvement

2021-01 – confirmed as Director of National Intelligence
2021-06-25 – ODNI Preliminary Assessment on UAP published
2021-11-11 – Washington National Cathedral remarks
2022-07 – IC IG refers Grusch's complaint to her office
2023-10 – FY2023 consolidated annual report on UAP
2024-11 – FY2024 consolidated annual report on UAP
2025-01-20 – leaves office with the change of administration
2026-06-11 – named next president of the Carnegie Endowment
2026-09-28 – assumes the Carnegie presidency

Relevant links

Part of the Key People in Disclosure series. Verified 2026-10-10. Spotted an error? Reach out.