Tim McMillan

Retired police lieutenant who co-founded The Debrief. Wrote the 2020 AATIP history for Popular Mechanics and verified the 2023 Grusch story.

Current role: Co-founder and Executive Director of The Debrief; investigative reporter covering defence, science and the intelligence community

Former roles:

Police lieutenant (retired) after nearly two decades in law enforcement
Freelance writer for Popular Mechanics, Vice News and The War Zone

@lttimmcmillan on X

Background

Tim McMillan spent nearly two decades in law enforcement, retiring as a police lieutenant, before turning to investigative reporting on defence, national security and the intelligence community. His February 2020 Popular Mechanics feature on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program and its contractor, Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, became a reference account of how that programme was run. In November 2020 he co-founded The Debrief with Micah Hanks and serves as its Executive Director. In 2023 he carried out the independent background verification for the Kean and Blumenthal story on David Grusch. His recent output is mostly science and defence reporting, with occasional UAP pieces. The Debrief bio gives the current title.

On the record

2026-02-20 – The Debrief – on the presidential statement about UFO files: "President Trump's statement, as written, does not clearly order the declassification of any such records (if they exist)." and "It means the public should not confuse 'ordering a release' with 'declaring the secrets unclassified.'" – The Debrief
2023-06-05 – The Debrief fact-check Q&A – described how he corroborated Grusch's employment history and dates through people at the agencies involved and through congressional staff, had an attorney red-team the article, and said that "Because I was able to verify everything," none of the article's wording changed. – The Debrief
2020-02-14 – Popular Mechanics – "Inside the Pentagon's Secret UFO Program", a long-form history of AATIP, Luis Elizondo's role and the BAASS subcontract, including a previously unreleased technical paper. – Popular Mechanics · Black Vault discussion, 2020-02-18

Timeline of involvement

2020-02-14 – Popular Mechanics AATIP feature
2020-11 – co-founds The Debrief with Micah Hanks
2023-06-05 – verifies the Grusch story and publishes the fact-check Q&A
2026-02-20 – analysis of the Trump UFO-files statement
2026-10 – continues publishing at The Debrief, mostly science and defence

Relevant links

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