Document · 26 July 2023
David Grusch — written opening statement, House Oversight hearing (July 26, 2023)
David Grusch's written opening and closing statements for the House Oversight hearing of 26 July 2023. He introduces himself as an intelligence officer for 14 years, a USAF major and from 2021 to 2023 a GS-15 at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, where he co-led UAP analysis, and as a member of the UAP Task Force from 2019 to 2021 for the National Reconnaissance Office, tasked with identifying the special access programmes relevant to its mission.
His central claim: "I was informed, in the course of my official duties, of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which I was denied access", which he reported "to my superiors and multiple Inspectors General", after which he says he suffered retaliation. He stresses that his testimony rests on information from individuals with long records of service, some of whom shared photographs, documents and classified oral testimony, and that he is "speaking to the facts as I have been told them."
The closing statement refers to "the Non-Human Reverse Engineering Programs I have reported". AARO's 2024 historical review found no evidence for such programmes.
Sources: Grusch's written statement (2023) · AARO Historical Record Report, Vol. 1 (2024)
Facts and claims
- documented “I was informed, in the course of my official duties, of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which I was denied access to those additional read-on’s.” He says he reported this “to my superiors and multiple Inspectors General”. Source: doc-grusch-statement-2023-07-26.pdf
- documented The statement refers to “the Non-Human Reverse Engineering Programs I have reported”, and describes him as an intelligence officer for 14 years (a USAF Major, then GS-15 at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, 2021–2023). Source: doc-grusch-statement-2023-07-26.pdf
Key moments: House holds hearing on UFOs, government transparency | full video
- 29:36 David Grusch: Grusch says he became a whistleblower through a PPD-19 urgent-concern filing with the Intelligence Community Inspector General in May 2022.
- 31:12 David Grusch: Grusch: a member of the UAP Task Force from 2019 to 2021 in his NRO reserve role, he was asked by its director to identify every special and controlled access program the task force needed.
- 32:06 David Grusch: Grusch: informed in the course of his official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program, to which he was denied access.
- 49:27 David Grusch: Asked whether the government possesses UAP, Grusch answers “Absolutely, based on interviewing over 40 witnesses over 4 years,” and says he gave the exact locations to the Inspector General.
- 53:13 David Grusch: Asked whether he has personal knowledge of people harmed or injured in efforts to conceal the technology, Grusch answers “yes”; on murders, he says he directed people with that knowledge to the appropriate authorities.
- 59:07 David Grusch: Grusch says colleagues were “brutally administratively attacked” for pursuing the issue: “I call it administrative terrorism.”
- 1:00:53 David Grusch: Asked whether in the last couple of years he has had incidents that caused him to fear for his life for addressing this, Grusch answers “yes personally”.
- 1:01:49 David Grusch: Asked by Rep. Luna, Grusch says he had a classified conversation with Sean Kirkpatrick in April 2022, before Kirkpatrick took over AARO, and gave him his concerns; asked why Kirkpatrick never followed up, he says he cannot read his mind.
- 1:08:48 David Grusch: Asked whether contractors overcharge the government to fund programs, Grusch answers “Correct, through something called IR&D.”
- 1:11:52 David Grusch: Asked whether Kirkpatrick's “no credible evidence” statement is correct, Grusch says “It is not accurate,” adding that some of the roughly 30 people who went to AARO were also people he interviewed.
- 1:19:34 David Grusch: Grusch: “I like to use the term nonhuman. I do not like to denote origin,” and dates the government's awareness to “previously 1930's.”
- 1:21:42 David Grusch: Grusch tells Gaetz “It is a misnomer that there is anything actually above top secret,” citing Executive Order 13526.
- 1:35:30 David Grusch: Grusch tells Burlison that colleagues were physically injured both by UAP and by people within the government; asked if he has seen the bodies: “That is something I have not witnessed myself.”
- 1:49:13 David Grusch: Asked whether the U.S. has the bodies of the pilots, Grusch: “biologics came with some of these recoveries”, and they were nonhuman — “the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the program I talked to that are currently still on the program.”
- 1:57:28 David Grusch: Asked whether UAP show interest in nuclear technology, Graves and Fravor say yes and Grusch calls it a fair assessment; Grusch won't confirm or deny Department of Energy involvement in public.
- 1:59:04 David Grusch: Grusch says he has personal knowledge of people injured working on legacy UAP reverse-engineering.
Connected files
People
- David Grusch (authored by)
Hearings & briefings
Concepts
Mentioned in this file
- House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (Organization)
- Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (Program)
- National Reconnaissance Office (Organization)
- AARO Historical Record Report, Volume 1 (Document)
- All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (Program)
More documents
- Hearing transcript: UAP — Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency (House Oversight, July 26, 2023)
- Michael Shellenberger written testimony + appendices
- House Oversight Task Force letter requesting UAP videos from the Department of War (31 March 2026)
- Hearing transcript: Restoring Public Trust Through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection (Sept 9, 2025)
- David Fravor — written statement, House Oversight hearing (July 26, 2023)
- Ryan Graves — written testimony, House Oversight hearing (July 26, 2023)