Key people

This page is the index for the key whistleblowers, politicians, officials, scientists and journalists involved in the UAP disclosure process since 2017. Each person has a dedicated page listing only what they have said on the record, separately from claims attributed to them by others, and any official responses or criticism.

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I have not, and will not be able to, independently verify the claims these people make. I summarise what was said, where, and with what sourcing, and update each page when something changes. Each page shows its own verification date.

Labels: less active means no on-the-record involvement in the past year or so, no longer active means they have left the role that put them in the disclosure conversation. Everyone else is active. Within each group, active people come first.

Active in 2026

Everyone with at least one on-the-record item this year, across all groups (49 people, alphabetical).

Active in 2026 · 49

Robert Bigelow – Las Vegas businessman who funded private UAP research for three decades, ran the Pentagon's AAWSAP contract, and says he urged Trump in the Oval Office in February 2026 to confirm a non-human presence.
Ralph Blumenthal – Former NYT reporter who co-wrote the 2017 AATIP story and the 2023 Grusch story with Leslie Kean. Biographer of John Mack.
Dylan Borland – Former USAF geospatial intelligence specialist who testified to the House Oversight Task Force in Sep 2025 about a 2012 triangle sighting and legacy programs.
Matthew Brown – Self-identified author of the 'Immaculate Constellation' whistleblower report, public since April 2025, who asked Trump in 2026 to waive his NDA.
Tim Burchett – Tennessee Republican who helped force the July 2023 UAP hearing; has since filed a bill to abolish AARO while backing the White House release effort.
Eric Burlison – Missouri Republican who hired David Grusch as an adviser and got the UAP Disclosure Act adopted by the House in July 2026.
André Carson – Indiana Democrat who chaired the first public UAP hearing in 50 years (May 2022) and in October 2026 called for AARO's second historical report to be released.
Carol Cleland – CU Boulder philosopher of science and astrobiology affiliate added to the UAP Science Advisory Council in June 2026 for anomaly identification.
Richard Cloete – Harvard Galileo Project computer scientist building AI detection and tracking for its sky observatory, named to the UAP Science Advisory Council in 2026.
James Comer – House Oversight chairman whose committee hosts the UAP hearings; said in September 2026 a planned hearing was lost to cancelled session days and would be tried again in November.
Jeremy Corbell – Filmmaker who released the 2021 Navy UAP videos and later leaks, and interviews whistleblowers on Weaponized. Claims are anonymous-sourced unless stated.
Ross Coulthart – Australian journalist whose 2023 NewsNation interview brought David Grusch to television. Relays anonymous-sourced UAP claims; official responses are appended here.
Luis Elizondo – Former Army counterintelligence agent and self-described AATIP director who surfaced the 2017 Pentagon videos and told Congress in Nov 2024 that 'UAP are real'.
Tulsi Gabbard (no longer active) – DNI Feb 2025 to mid-2026. Named UAP a priority, set up ODNI's Director's Initiatives Group with a UAP remit, co-signed the PURSUE launch, resigned May 2026.
Tim Gallaudet – Retired Navy rear admiral who testified in Nov 2024 about a vanished 2015 'Go Fast' safety email and now sits on the UAP Science Advisory Council.
Kirsten Gillibrand – New York senator whose 2021 NDAA amendment created AARO; has pressed the Pentagon on UAP incursions, reporting and the office's briefings since.
Ryan Graves – Former Navy F/A-18 pilot who testified in 2023 to routine UAP encounters off Virginia Beach and now runs the pilot-reporting nonprofit Americans for Safe Aerospace.
David Grusch – Former NGA/USAF intelligence officer who testified under oath in July 2023 to a multi-decade UAP crash-retrieval and reverse-engineering program.
Robin Hanson – George Mason economist who has blogged on UFOs-as-aliens since 2008 and joined the UAP Science Advisory Council, where he proposes a testimony data project.
Jacob Haqq-Misra – Astrobiologist who co-wrote the 2020 Scientific American call to study UAP, sits on the Sol Foundation advisory board and joined the UAP advisory council.
Pete Hegseth – Secretary of War whose department launched the PURSUE UAP file releases in May 2026. Says the Pentagon is 'in lockstep' with Trump on transparency.
John S. Herrington – Reagan's Energy Secretary who said in October 2026 he found nothing on UFOs in the department's budgets or programmes, finds the Navy footage genuine but unexplained, and calls a 1981 'aliens' story about him a lie.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – HHS Secretary who said in October 2026 that a group claiming crash-retrieval experience approached him during the transition, and that he has had briefings since.
Leslie Kean – Co-author of the 2017 NYT story that revealed AATIP and the 2023 Debrief story that introduced David Grusch. Reporting relies on named sources.
Sean Kirkpatrick – Founding AARO director (2022–23). Physicist who says the office found no evidence of extraterrestrial technology and remains a public sceptic of the claims.
Kevin Knuth – UAlbany physicist and former NASA Ames scientist whose 2019 paper estimated UAP accelerations and who joined the UAP Science Advisory Council in 2026.
Ravi Kopparapu – NASA Goddard planetary scientist who argued in 2020 and 2021 that UAP deserve scientific study, reported added to the UAP Science Advisory Council in 2026.
Jon Kosloski – AARO director since Aug 2024. NSA physicist who says a few cases remain anomalous while his office finds no evidence of captured UAP materials.
Ben Lamm – Colossal Biosciences co-founder and CEO named to the UAP Science Advisory Council in June 2026, listed for oceanography and biology.
Matt Laslo – Capitol Hill reporter whose Ask a Pol hallway interviews put lawmakers on the record about UAP legislation, briefings and hearings.
Avi Loeb – Harvard astrophysicist and Galileo Project head who in June 2026 was asked to chair a government-facing UAP Science Advisory Council.
Anna Paulina Luna – Florida Republican chairing the Oversight secrets Task Force; demanded 46 AARO videos in 2026 and says she has seen material she believes is of nonhuman origin.
Pippa Malmgren – Economist and former Bush economic adviser who writes on UAP policy and relayed the late Harald Malmgren's claims about handling recovered material.
Tim McMillan – Retired police lieutenant who co-founded The Debrief. Wrote the 2020 AATIP history for Popular Mechanics and verified the 2023 Grusch story.
Christopher Mellon – Former DASD for Intelligence who gave the 2017 Pentagon videos to the NYT, shaped the first Senate UAP reporting language, and chairs the Disclosure Foundation.
Jared Moskowitz – Florida Democrat in the bipartisan group behind the July 2023 hearing; cosponsor of the 2026 House UAP Disclosure Act amendment.
Garry Nolan – Stanford immunologist who analyses alleged UAP materials, co-founded the Sol Foundation in 2023 and joined the UAP Science Advisory Council in 2026.
Barack Obama (less active) – Former president whose 2021 and 2026 interview remarks on unexplained aerial objects drew official and political responses, including Trump's February 2026 files directive.
Mike Rounds – South Dakota Republican who co-wrote the UAP Disclosure Act with Schumer in 2023 and has re-offered it to each defense bill since.
Marco Rubio (less active) – Former Senate Intelligence vice chair behind early UAP reporting mandates and AARO's creation; now Secretary of State and still asked about the topic.
Chuck Schumer – Senate Democratic leader who wrote the UAP Disclosure Act with Mike Rounds in 2023 and has re-offered it to every defense bill since.
Michael Shermer – Skeptic magazine founder named to the UAP Science Advisory Council in June 2026 as its in-house sceptic, after years of saying UAP claims lack evidence.
Peter Skafish – Sociocultural anthropologist who co-founded the Sol Foundation with Garry Nolan in 2023 and joined the UAP Science Advisory Council in June 2026.
Jay Stratton – First director of the Pentagon's UAP Task Force and AAWSAP co-founder. His memoir Out of the Shadows, due 13 Oct 2026, is the first book by a former UAPTF head.
Matthew Szydagis – UAlbany dark-matter physicist who led the peer-reviewed paper on UAPx's 2021 field expedition and joined the UAP Science Advisory Council for instrumentation.
Donald Trump – President whose February 2026 directive led to the PURSUE UAP file releases and a July 2026 order waiving NDAs for insiders speaking to authorised officials.
JD Vance – Vice President who says he has started looking into "the UFO program" with his clearance, is reading Stratton's memoir, and has called the phenomena possibly "demons".
Jennice Vilhauer – Los Angeles clinical psychologist on the UAP Science Advisory Council who leads work on the psychological impact of possible UAP and NHI disclosure.
Liberty Vittert – Washington University statistician and Harvard Data Science Review editor who joined the UAP Science Advisory Council in June 2026 for data analysis.

Everyone, by group

Whistleblowers · 4

Dylan Borland – Former USAF geospatial intelligence specialist who testified to the House Oversight Task Force in Sep 2025 about a 2012 triangle sighting and legacy programs.
Matthew Brown – Self-identified author of the 'Immaculate Constellation' whistleblower report, public since April 2025, who asked Trump in 2026 to waive his NDA.
David Grusch – Former NGA/USAF intelligence officer who testified under oath in July 2023 to a multi-decade UAP crash-retrieval and reverse-engineering program.
Jake Barber (less active) – Air Force veteran who told NewsNation in Jan 2025 he flew helicopters in UAP crash-retrieval operations, and who fronts the private group Skywatcher.

Close observers · 3

Robert Bigelow – Las Vegas businessman who funded private UAP research for three decades, ran the Pentagon's AAWSAP contract, and says he urged Trump in the Oval Office in February 2026 to confirm a non-human presence.
Ryan Graves – Former Navy F/A-18 pilot who testified in 2023 to routine UAP encounters off Virginia Beach and now runs the pilot-reporting nonprofit Americans for Safe Aerospace.
David Fravor (less active) – Retired Navy commander who led the November 2004 Nimitz 'Tic Tac' intercept and described it under oath to the House in July 2023.

Congress · 12

Tim Burchett – Tennessee Republican who helped force the July 2023 UAP hearing; has since filed a bill to abolish AARO while backing the White House release effort.
Eric Burlison – Missouri Republican who hired David Grusch as an adviser and got the UAP Disclosure Act adopted by the House in July 2026.
André Carson – Indiana Democrat who chaired the first public UAP hearing in 50 years (May 2022) and in October 2026 called for AARO's second historical report to be released.
James Comer – House Oversight chairman whose committee hosts the UAP hearings; said in September 2026 a planned hearing was lost to cancelled session days and would be tried again in November.
Kirsten Gillibrand – New York senator whose 2021 NDAA amendment created AARO; has pressed the Pentagon on UAP incursions, reporting and the office's briefings since.
Anna Paulina Luna – Florida Republican chairing the Oversight secrets Task Force; demanded 46 AARO videos in 2026 and says she has seen material she believes is of nonhuman origin.
Jared Moskowitz – Florida Democrat in the bipartisan group behind the July 2023 hearing; cosponsor of the 2026 House UAP Disclosure Act amendment.
Mike Rounds – South Dakota Republican who co-wrote the UAP Disclosure Act with Schumer in 2023 and has re-offered it to each defense bill since.
Chuck Schumer – Senate Democratic leader who wrote the UAP Disclosure Act with Mike Rounds in 2023 and has re-offered it to every defense bill since.
Andy Ogles (less active) – Tennessee Republican who raised the Holman Rule at the July 2023 hearing; UAP Caucus member leaving Congress in January 2027 after losing his primary.
Matt Gaetz (no longer active) – Former Florida congressman who described an Eglin AFB UAP briefing at the July 2023 hearing; left Congress in November 2024 and has not featured since.
Mike Gallagher (no longer active) – Former Wisconsin congressman who pressed the Pentagon at the 2022 UAP hearing and co-wrote the UAP reporting-system amendment; out of Congress since April 2024.

Executive branch · 12

Pete Hegseth – Secretary of War whose department launched the PURSUE UAP file releases in May 2026. Says the Pentagon is 'in lockstep' with Trump on transparency.
John S. Herrington – Reagan's Energy Secretary who said in October 2026 he found nothing on UFOs in the department's budgets or programmes, finds the Navy footage genuine but unexplained, and calls a 1981 'aliens' story about him a lie.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – HHS Secretary who said in October 2026 that a group claiming crash-retrieval experience approached him during the transition, and that he has had briefings since.
Donald Trump – President whose February 2026 directive led to the PURSUE UAP file releases and a July 2026 order waiving NDAs for insiders speaking to authorised officials.
JD Vance – Vice President who says he has started looking into "the UFO program" with his clearance, is reading Stratton's memoir, and has called the phenomena possibly "demons".
John Ratcliffe (less active) – Former DNI, now CIA Director, who said in 2021 that some multi-sensor UAP cases stayed unexplained after prosaic causes were ruled out.
Marco Rubio (less active) – Former Senate Intelligence vice chair behind early UAP reporting mandates and AARO's creation; now Secretary of State and still asked about the topic.
Tulsi Gabbard (no longer active) – DNI Feb 2025 to mid-2026. Named UAP a priority, set up ODNI's Director's Initiatives Group with a UAP remit, co-signed the PURSUE launch, resigned May 2026.
Avril Haines (no longer active) – 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.
Kathleen Hicks (no longer active) – Deputy Secretary of Defense (2021–25) who took direct oversight of AARO in Aug 2023 and appointed Jon Kosloski as its director in Aug 2024.
John Kirby (no longer active) – Biden White House national security spokesman whose 2023 podium answers on UAP ('We don't have the answers') were the administration's main on-record line.
Bill Nelson (no longer active) – NASA Administrator 2021–2025 who commissioned the agency's independent UAP study and said publicly he doesn't think we're alone.

Defense and intelligence · 9

Luis Elizondo – Former Army counterintelligence agent and self-described AATIP director who surfaced the 2017 Pentagon videos and told Congress in Nov 2024 that 'UAP are real'.
Tim Gallaudet – Retired Navy rear admiral who testified in Nov 2024 about a vanished 2015 'Go Fast' safety email and now sits on the UAP Science Advisory Council.
Sean Kirkpatrick – Founding AARO director (2022–23). Physicist who says the office found no evidence of extraterrestrial technology and remains a public sceptic of the claims.
Jon Kosloski – AARO director since Aug 2024. NSA physicist who says a few cases remain anomalous while his office finds no evidence of captured UAP materials.
Christopher Mellon – Former DASD for Intelligence who gave the 2017 Pentagon videos to the NYT, shaped the first Senate UAP reporting language, and chairs the Disclosure Foundation.
Jay Stratton – First director of the Pentagon's UAP Task Force and AAWSAP co-founder. His memoir Out of the Shadows, due 13 Oct 2026, is the first book by a former UAPTF head.
Karl Nell (less active) – Retired Army colonel who corroborated Grusch to journalists, publicly asserted NHI is real, and in Oct 2025 argued the 2017–2025 disclosure cycle has ended.
Charles McCullough III (no longer active) – First Senate-confirmed IC Inspector General. As a Compass Rose partner he filed David Grusch's 2022 whistleblower complaint and represented him until June 2023.
Thomas Monheim (no longer active) – IC Inspector General (2020–25) who received David Grusch's 2022 complaint, found it credible and urgent, and briefed House Oversight members in January 2024.

Scientists · 13

Carol Cleland – CU Boulder philosopher of science and astrobiology affiliate added to the UAP Science Advisory Council in June 2026 for anomaly identification.
Richard Cloete – Harvard Galileo Project computer scientist building AI detection and tracking for its sky observatory, named to the UAP Science Advisory Council in 2026.
Robin Hanson – George Mason economist who has blogged on UFOs-as-aliens since 2008 and joined the UAP Science Advisory Council, where he proposes a testimony data project.
Jacob Haqq-Misra – Astrobiologist who co-wrote the 2020 Scientific American call to study UAP, sits on the Sol Foundation advisory board and joined the UAP advisory council.
Kevin Knuth – UAlbany physicist and former NASA Ames scientist whose 2019 paper estimated UAP accelerations and who joined the UAP Science Advisory Council in 2026.
Ravi Kopparapu – NASA Goddard planetary scientist who argued in 2020 and 2021 that UAP deserve scientific study, reported added to the UAP Science Advisory Council in 2026.
Avi Loeb – Harvard astrophysicist and Galileo Project head who in June 2026 was asked to chair a government-facing UAP Science Advisory Council.
Garry Nolan – Stanford immunologist who analyses alleged UAP materials, co-founded the Sol Foundation in 2023 and joined the UAP Science Advisory Council in 2026.
Peter Skafish – Sociocultural anthropologist who co-founded the Sol Foundation with Garry Nolan in 2023 and joined the UAP Science Advisory Council in June 2026.
Matthew Szydagis – UAlbany dark-matter physicist who led the peer-reviewed paper on UAPx's 2021 field expedition and joined the UAP Science Advisory Council for instrumentation.
Jacques Vallée – French-born computer scientist and former astronomer, long-time UFO researcher and Hynek collaborator, now on the Sol Foundation's advisory board.
Jennice Vilhauer – Los Angeles clinical psychologist on the UAP Science Advisory Council who leads work on the psychological impact of possible UAP and NHI disclosure.
Liberty Vittert – Washington University statistician and Harvard Data Science Review editor who joined the UAP Science Advisory Council in June 2026 for data analysis.

Journalists · 7

Ralph Blumenthal – Former NYT reporter who co-wrote the 2017 AATIP story and the 2023 Grusch story with Leslie Kean. Biographer of John Mack.
Jeremy Corbell – Filmmaker who released the 2021 Navy UAP videos and later leaks, and interviews whistleblowers on Weaponized. Claims are anonymous-sourced unless stated.
Ross Coulthart – Australian journalist whose 2023 NewsNation interview brought David Grusch to television. Relays anonymous-sourced UAP claims; official responses are appended here.
Leslie Kean – Co-author of the 2017 NYT story that revealed AATIP and the 2023 Debrief story that introduced David Grusch. Reporting relies on named sources.
George Knapp – Las Vegas TV reporter who broke the Bob Lazar story in 1989, co-hosts Weaponized, and testified to the House UAP task force in September 2025.
Matt Laslo – Capitol Hill reporter whose Ask a Pol hallway interviews put lawmakers on the record about UAP legislation, briefings and hearings.
Tim McMillan – Retired police lieutenant who co-founded The Debrief. Wrote the 2020 AATIP history for Popular Mechanics and verified the 2023 Grusch story.

Commentators and advocates · 3

Pippa Malmgren – Economist and former Bush economic adviser who writes on UAP policy and relayed the late Harald Malmgren's claims about handling recovered material.
Michael Shermer – Skeptic magazine founder named to the UAP Science Advisory Council in June 2026 as its in-house sceptic, after years of saying UAP claims lack evidence.
Matthew Pines (less active) – National-security analyst and Bitcoin policy executive who comments on UAP policy and secrecy structures. Adviser to Skywatcher since early 2025.

Other notable figures · 2

Ben Lamm – Colossal Biosciences co-founder and CEO named to the UAP Science Advisory Council in June 2026, listed for oceanography and biology.
Barack Obama (less active) – Former president whose 2021 and 2026 interview remarks on unexplained aerial objects drew official and political responses, including Trump's February 2026 files directive.

Last updated 3 November 2026. Updated monthly from the weekly updates.