David Grusch has put as many specific claims about a hidden UAP program on the public record as anyone, under oath and off it, for more than three years. This page keeps them in one place: what he said, where and when he said it, whether he says he saw it himself, and what the public record shows today. We update it when he speaks and when the record moves.
The ratings are the ones we use everywhere on TruthCapsuleTV. Verified means a document or an on-record official statement supports the claim. Claimed means it rests on his word or his sources' word, and nothing public confirms or contradicts it. Disputed means an official record contradicts it, which is a lower bar than proving it false. Prediction is a forecast, checked when its date arrives. Opinion is his judgment rather than a factual claim. "Verified, in part" means the record confirms one element of a claim and is silent on the rest.
Who He Is
By his own sworn account, Grusch spent 14 years as an intelligence officer: in the Air Force, where he reached the rank of major, and from 2021 to 2023 at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency as a GS-15 civilian, where he was the agency's co-lead for UAP and "trans-medium object analysis." As a National Reconnaissance Office reservist he sat on the Pentagon's UAP Task Force, by his account from 2019 to 2021. He became a whistleblower through a PPD-19 urgent-concern filing with the Intelligence Community Inspector General. From March 2025 he worked as a special advisor to Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.); on Joe Rogan's show on September 30, 2026, he said he had left that job around Labor Day.
His central claim has not changed since 2023, and it is a claim about what others told him: "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." Most of what follows rests on that foundation. The exceptions, the things he says he saw or did himself, are marked.
Journalists Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal publish his account. It is the first time his claims reach the public.
First on-camera interview, with Ross Coulthart. He refers back to it in his sworn testimony.
Testifies alongside former Navy pilots David Fravor and Ryan Graves. Official transcript.
First Joe Rogan appearance. Names Reps. Mike Rogers and Mike Turner as obstacles to the UAP Disclosure Act.
Burlison's office announces Grusch as a special advisor.
News conference with the House declassification task force. Alleges "slush funds to the tune of billions of dollars per annum."
Second Rogan appearance, about two and a half hours. Says for the first time that he has watched video of dead non-human beings.
The Ledger
Quotes are verbatim from the official hearing transcript, the episode transcripts, or contemporaneous news reports, linked at the end. "Firsthand" reflects how Grusch himself framed each claim.
| Claim | Where | Basis | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Craft and reverse engineering | |||
| A "multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program" exists, and he was "denied access" to it. | Opening statement, July 2023, under oath | Told to him | Disputed AARO, March 2024: "no empirical evidence for claims that the USG and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology." |
| The government possesses UAPs. "I know the exact locations," which he says went to the Inspector General and some to the intelligence committees. | Hearing, July 2023, under oath | "based on interviewing over 40 witnesses over 4 years" | Disputed AARO, March 2024, called claims involving "known locations" tied to reverse engineering "inaccurate." The locations he says he gave the Inspector General have not been made public. |
| "We've recovered material, aka intact, intact, intact craft" and are reverse engineering it, though "a lot of it was garnered via inspiration, not one-to-one." | JRE #2560, ~00:24 to 00:26 | Told to him | Disputed Same AARO finding as above. The "inspiration" qualifier is new in 2026. |
| Bodies | |||
| "Biologics came with some of these recoveries." Asked whether human or non-human: "Nonhuman, and that was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the program I talked to that are currently still on the program." | Hearing, July 2023, under oath | Told to him | Claimed At the same hearing, asked "Have you seen any of the bodies?", he answered: "That is something I have not witnessed myself." |
| He has watched video of dead non-human beings at a retrieval: "I think three or four is what I saw." "It's contemporary." They looked human and "Very, very beautiful." | JRE #2560, ~01:00 to 01:09 | Firsthand (video) | Claimed New in 2026. No footage, frame, date, or location has been released. See "What Changed" below on how this sits with his 2023 answer. |
| Colleagues saw living reptilian beings, "seven foot tall plus sort of gorilla looking, scaly skin though." | JRE #2560, ~01:12 to 01:20 | Told to him: "Now, I've never seen them personally." | Claimed |
| Conflict and the ocean | |||
| Some crashes reflect conflict between non-human groups: "So some of it is NHI versus NHI." He puts the number of such crashes at "at least a dozen or two." | JRE #2560, ~01:16 to 01:23 | Told to him | Claimed |
| In one encounter a being "posed a threat," and "U.S. personnel started, you know, getting hurt and dying." | JRE #2560, ~02:13 | Told to him: "Not through me. secondhand" | Claimed Asked what happened to the living beings, he said: "Deceased. They were killed." The line most quoted online, that US troops "shot the reptilians," is Rogan's wording, to which Grusch answered "Yeah." |
| An undersea "base of operations in certain locations. It's large," and "the origin is indeterminate." | JRE #2560, ~02:23 to 02:24 | Told to him (sources not named) | Claimed "Multiple city blocks," widely quoted, comes from this exchange; the transcript does not make clear who said it first, and Grusch agreed with it. |
| Money, and why it stays secret | |||
| The program is funded through "misappropriation of funds and self-fund." | Hearing, July 2023, under oath | Told to him | Claimed |
| "I found slush funds to the tune of billions of dollars per annum for these activities." | News conference, June 9, 2026 | His own investigation, by his account | Claimed No program record, audit, or Inspector General finding has been released. |
| A study of what disclosure would do to society took place at a federally funded research center in Northern Virginia, "like November of 2004." | JRE #2560, ~00:47 | From attendees, he says | Verified, in part AARO confirmed that an organization in Northern Virginia conducted the study sometime between 2004 and 2007. Interviewees told AARO it lasted one day, with about 12 participants rating 64 aspects of society. |
| Steve Hadley, whom he calls the National Security Advisor, sponsored that study. Grusch adds: "I believe Hadley denies it." | JRE #2560, ~00:47 | Told to him | Disputed AARO: two former senior White House officials said the White House "did not request it, nor were they aware of any such study." Hadley was deputy national security advisor in November 2004 and took the top job in January 2005. |
| Contractor liability is why disclosure was refused: contractors "got sole source contracts and exclusive access," and "the government would be liable for" billions. "But that was the main reason." | JRE #2560, ~00:48 to 00:49; also JRE #2065, November 2023 | Told to him | Claimed AARO's interviewee "was not aware of any final report." No document recording that conclusion has surfaced. |
| Threats and retaliation | |||
| "I have suffered retaliation for my decision." | Opening statement, July 2023, under oath | Firsthand | Claimed No finding on his reprisal complaints has been made public. |
| He has personal knowledge of people "harmed or injured" in efforts to conceal the program: "Yes, personally." | Hearing, July 2023, under oath | Firsthand knowledge, by his account | Claimed He declined to give details in open session. |
| In a Senate secure setting, people named individuals and told him "they wanted to kill you." Separately, he was "sent a message that they can touch me and my wife." | JRE #2560, ~00:14 to 00:18; the threat to him and his wife also on JRE #2065 | Firsthand that he was told; the threat itself is reported to him | Claimed AARO's 2024 report found "no evidence of any authentic UAP-related NDA or other evidence threatening death or violence," a related but narrower question. |
| Congress and the future | |||
| "why are Mike Rogers and Mike Turner in the House blocking this bill that is, in my opinion, the most important legislation for transparency in American history." | JRE #2065, November 2023 | His opinion | Opinion The final FY2024 defense bill dropped the UAP Disclosure Act's independent review board and eminent-domain provisions and kept a scaled-back records collection at the National Archives. |
| "before Trump, Trump's term ends, that it's all going to come out," and "before Trump leaves office, we're going to be in a new paradigm." | JRE #2560, ~00:24 to 00:29 | Forecast | Prediction Checkable by January 20, 2029. |
What Changed Between 2023 and 2026
The bodies. In July 2023, Rep. Burlison asked him under oath, "Have you seen any of the bodies?" He answered: "That is something I have not witnessed myself." Later in the same hearing, Rep. Nancy Mace asked whether the evidence for non-human biologics was "documentary evidence, this video, photos, eyewitness," and he replied: "The specific documentation I would have to talk to you in a SCIF about." On September 30, 2026, Rogan asked whether he had seen the dead beings he described "physically or" on "video." He said: "Video." Both answers can be accurate if "witnessed" meant seeing them in person. He has not said when he first saw the footage. Asked how old it was, he called it "contemporary," and while describing it he added, "it's been a while." If he had seen it before July 2023, his sworn answer left it out, and the date he first saw it is the question we would put to him first.
The money. In 2023 he described funding in general terms, "misappropriation of funds and self-fund," and offered specifics only in closed session. By June 2026 he was putting a figure on it: billions of dollars a year.
New subjects. The 2026 Rogan interview introduced claims he had not made in his testimony: distinct groups of non-human beings in conflict with each other, living beings seen by colleagues, US casualties, and an undersea base. Every one of them is secondhand by his own framing. His account of contractor liability as the motive for secrecy is older; he gave it on Rogan's show in November 2023.
What the Government Has Said
The Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office answered the crash-retrieval narrative directly in its Historical Record Report, Volume 1, in March 2024. It found "no empirical evidence for claims that the USG and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology," and said interviewees had "mistakenly associated" authentic classified programs "with alien and extraterrestrial activity." The same report confirmed the 2004 to 2007 disclosure study and denied that the White House asked for it. AARO said further claims would be addressed in a second volume; we could not find one published as of October 3, 2026.
AARO is also a party to this dispute. Grusch called Volume 1 "horrible" on Rogan's show, and its findings rest on interviews and program reviews the public cannot inspect either. A "Disputed" rating on this page means an official record contradicts the claim. It does not mean the record has been shown to be right.
What Would Move These Ratings
1. One frame of the footage. A still, a date, or the operation it came from would let anyone test the most specific claim he has made. He has said he is withholding detail to protect sources.
2. The same claim, under oath. False testimony to Congress carries legal risk and a podcast interview carries none, so repeating the footage claim in a sworn setting would change its weight.
3. The locations he gave the Inspector General. If a committee confirmed it received them and checked even one, the locations row above would move, and so would the claims that rest on the same witnesses.
4. AARO's second volume. It was promised to address the claims Volume 1 did not. Until it appears, the government has not answered every claim Volume 1 left open.
What to Watch Next
- The interview he says is coming. On Rogan he mentioned another interview that is "not out yet."
- Burlison's MITRE inquiry. Grusch says Burlison's office sent an interrogatory to the MITRE Corporation this summer. A response, or the published question list, would put a document behind claims that so far rest on testimony.
- PURSUE. None of the 450 files in the Department of War's six releases contains footage or images of bodies. The closest is a 1963 CIA wire report on a Brazilian radio broadcast about a crashed sphere "containing a deceased occupant" (Release 05, EOP-UAP-D001). No seventh release has been announced.
- AARO Volume 2. Still unpublished as far as we can find.
The Honest Read
Grusch's credentials are documented and his 2023 testimony is a sworn record, but no public record documents the program he describes. Of the 19 claims above, one is partly confirmed by the government's own report and four are contradicted by it. Twelve rest on his word or on accounts relayed to him, and two are his opinion or a forecast. The September 2026 interview added the first claim about non-human beings that he presents as his own observation, the footage, without anything that would let an outsider check it.
A single document could change several of these ratings. We will update this page when one appears.
Official transcript, July 26, 2023 and his written opening statement.
Full episode and machine transcript (no speaker labels; we dropped or flagged lines where the speaker is unclear).
Transcript of the November 2023 episode, the source of the Turner and Rogers quote.
Historical Record Report, Volume 1. The 2004 to 2007 study is in Section 5.
"David Grusch Claims He Saw Government Video of 'Beautiful' Dead Aliens", September 30, 2026.
Related Briefings
- Breaking: Sentient Plasma and Sky Wars — What Grusch Told Rogan, and the Paper Behind the Orbs (October 1, 2026)
- Edition 020: Witnesses Without Documents (July 2026)
- Edition 022: Four Witnesses, 450 Files, No Match (October 2026)
- Breaking: Inside the Pentagon's Sixth UAP Release (September 2026)
- The UAP Timeline, 1947 to now
Update log. October 3, 2026: page created, covering appearances from June 2023 through JRE #2560.