The Grusch Whistleblower Complaint and the 2023 Congressional Testimony

Briefing

At 10:06 a.m. on the twenty-sixth of July 2023, in room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability took sworn testimony from David Charles Grusch, a former United States Air Force major and career intelligence officer [2]. Grusch told the subcommittee that he had been informed, in the course of official duties, of a multi-decade UAP crash-retrieval and reverse-engineering programme operating outside congressional oversight [1][2].

This file concerns the documentary record of that complaint and hearing — not the truth of the underlying allegation. The distinction matters, because the complaint itself has never been published. What exists publicly is the sworn testimony, Grusch’s written statement, a congressional office’s characterisation of the Inspector General’s finding, and a Defense Department Inspector General reprisal report released under FOIA in January 2026 [1][2][7][8].

Sequence of events

2019 — the tasking

• Grusch, then the National Reconnaissance Office representative to the UAP Task Force, was tasked by the Task Force director to identify all Special Access Programs and Controlled Access Programs needed to satisfy the Task Force’s congressionally mandated mission [1][2].
• He testified that he “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-ons when I requested it” [1][2].

May 2022 — the ICIG filing

• Grusch testified that he “became a whistleblower through a PPD-19 urgent concern filing in May 2022 with the intelligence community inspector general”, following reports from current and former military and intelligence personnel that the US Government was “operating with secrecy above congressional oversight with regards to UAPs” [2].
• The complaint, its annexes, and any determination letter remain unpublished.

August 2022 — the reprisal complaint and the clearance action

• On the second of August 2022 the complainant in the DoD Inspector General case filed a reprisal complaint with the DoD Hotline, alleging that after UAP-related protected communications his compartmented accesses were “mysteriously and without plausible explanation—suspended, canceled, delayed, denied, and/or improperly obstructed” [6][7].
• On the twenty-ninth of August 2022 the Consolidated Adjudications Facility issued a Letter of Intent and Statement of Reasons, finding it “clearly inconsistent with the National interest” to continue his access to classified information, including SCI, under Adjudicative Guideline E (Personal Conduct) [7].

The twenty-sixth of July 2023 — the hearing

• Grusch described himself in his written statement as “an intelligence officer for 14 years, both in the US Air Force (USAF) at the rank of Major and most recently, from 2021-2023, at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency at the GS-15 civilian level”, and as his agency’s co-lead for UAP and trans-medium object analysis [1].
• Asked by Rep. Robert Garcia whether the government possesses UAP, he answered “Absolutely, based on interviewing over 40 witnesses over 4 years”, adding that the locations “were provided to the Inspector General and some of which to the intelligence committees” [1][2].
• Asked by Rep. Eric Burlison whether he had seen the spacecraft, he said he had “to be careful to describe what I have seen firsthand and not in this environment” and could answer “behind closed doors”; on bodies, he answered: “That is something I have not witnessed myself” [2].
• Rep. Virginia Foxx placed on the record the contrary testimony of Dr Sean Kirkpatrick, then Director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, that there was “no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity” or “off-world technology brought to the attention of the office” [2].
• Grusch appeared alongside former Navy pilot Ryan Graves and Cdr David Fravor, USN (ret.), both of whom testified to sightings rather than to the complaint [2]. Fravor’s own account belongs to the separate Tic Tac encounter record.

2024 to 2026 — the official responses

• AARO published Volume 1 of its historical record report in 2024, reaching findings directly opposed to the reverse-engineering allegations [3][4].
• On the twenty-seventh of March 2025 Rep. Eric Burlison’s office announced Grusch as a Special Advisor supporting the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, stating that his 2022 ICIG complaint “was found ‘credible and urgent’ for reporting to the Congressional intelligence committees” [8].
• The DoD Inspector General provided a preliminary report of investigation to the complainant and his counsel on the thirteenth of February 2025; he responded on the twentieth of February 2025 “non concurring with our conclusion, but he did not provide any additional information” [7].
• The final report was released under FOIA case DODOIG-2025-000932 on the seventh of January 2026 — 66 pages released, 44 further pages withheld in full under exemptions including 50 U.S.C. §3024(i)(1) [6][7].

Documentary record

Three categories of document define this file, and they do not agree.

Grusch’s own testimony. His written opening statement is the only Grusch-authored document in the hearing file; it states the PPD-19 ICIG filing, the denied read-on, and that he has “suffered retaliation” [1]. The official GPO transcript, Serial No. 118-53, carries the full sworn exchange [2]. Both are first-hand records of what he said; neither is a record of the events he describes.

The Pentagon’s historical review. AARO’s 2024 report assesses that alleged hidden UAP reverse-engineering programmes “do not exist; are misidentified authentic, highly sensitive national security programs that are not related to extraterrestrial technology exploitation; or resolve to an unwarranted and disestablished program”, attributes such claims largely to “circular reporting from a group of individuals”, and finds “no evidence to suggest that the USAF had a policy intended to cover up the evidence of extraterrestrial knowledge, material, or interactions” [3][4]. The same report describes KONA BLUE, a proposed Department of Homeland Security Special Access Program growing out of DIA’s AAWSAP/AATIP work, intended to “restart UAP investigations, paranormal research… and reverse-engineer any recovered off-world spacecraft” — a programme that gained initial traction but was never approved [5].

The reprisal investigation. The DoD Inspector General concluded that the protected disclosures were not a contributing factor in the initial intent to revoke, and that as to the final letter of revocation, “clear and convincing evidence established that [redacted] would have taken the same action absent the Complainant’s protected disclosures”. It made no recommendations [7]. This archive notes carefully that the complainant is not named anywhere in the released pages [7].

Open questions

1. The ICIG complaint, its classified annexes, and any determination letter are not public. No primary text of the “credible and urgent” finding could be retrieved — only a congressional office’s characterisation of it [8] and secondary reporting giving a July 2022 date [9].
2. Because the Inspector General report never names its complainant, no primary document links that reprisal finding to Grusch by name [7]. The identification is an inference this file does not make on the reader’s behalf.
3. Grusch testified on the record that there was “an open whistleblower reprisal investigation on my behalf”, that it “was very brutal”, and that reprisal came from “certain senior leadership at previous agencies I was associated with” [2]. This sits in direct tension with the later Inspector General conclusion [7]. Both are recorded here without adjudication.
4. Names, locations, programme designations and the identity of the roughly forty interviewees were withheld from the public record and referred to the intelligence committees and the Inspector General [2]. No programme name for the alleged crash-retrieval effort appears in any primary document; Grusch stated he knows them but could not say them publicly [2].
5. Whether the congressional intelligence committees acted on the classified referrals is not addressed by any document available to this archive.
6. AARO’s FOIA memorandum 24-F-0266, reportedly addressing interview invitations, could not be retrieved; its contents are therefore not asserted here.

Status

This file is CONFIDENTIAL — admitted on the strength of primary government documentation: a sworn congressional transcript, a witness’s own written statement, a Pentagon historical review, and a FOIA-released Inspector General report [1][2][3][7]. The documents are unusually solid; the allegation they contain is not corroborated by any of them.

The archive records the following as witness testimony only, given under oath but resting on interviews rather than observation: that “biologics came with some of these recoveries”, described by Grusch as “Nonhuman, and that was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the program I talked to that are currently still on the program”; that awareness dates “previously 1930’s”, with Grusch adding “I like to use the term nonhuman. I do not like to denote origin”; that such a programme could be sustained by “misappropriation of funds and self-fund”, of which he said “I have specific knowledge of that”; and that he had personal knowledge of people harmed in cover-up efforts, answering “Yes, personally”, while on murder saying only “I have to be careful asking that question. I directed people with that knowledge to the appropriate authorities” [2].

Reported at a further remove: The Debrief (fifth of June 2023, Kean and Blumenthal) carried Grusch’s claim that “the recoveries of partial fragments through and up to intact vehicles have been made for decades through the present day”, and reported the May 2022 filing with an ICIG determination of “credible and urgent” in July 2022 [9]. That article also quotes retired Army Col. Karl E. Nell characterising Grusch as “beyond reproach”, and Jonathan Grey of NASIC stating “The non-human intelligence phenomenon is real. We are not alone” [9]. These are opinions of named individuals, not findings.

This file therefore documents a dispute of record, and readers seeking physical-evidence cases should consult files such as Rendlesham Forest, where contemporaneous military documentation attaches to an event rather than to an allegation. Updates pending any release of the ICIG file.

References

1. Grusch, David C. (2023). Opening Statement of David Grusch, House Oversight and Accountability Committee, 26th July 2023. U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Public domain.
2. U.S. Government Publishing Office (2023). “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency” — Hearing Transcript, Serial No. 118-53, Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, 118th Congress, 26th July 2023. Public domain.
3. All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (2024). Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, Volume 1, p. 9 — findings on alleged reverse-engineering programs. U.S. Department of Defense; transcribed on Wikisource. Public domain.
4. All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (2024). Historical Record Report Volume 1, p. 27 — key findings, no cover-up policy. U.S. Department of Defense; transcribed on Wikisource. Public domain.
5. All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (2024). Historical Record Report Volume 1, p. 34 — KONA BLUE. U.S. Department of Defense; transcribed on Wikisource. Public domain.
6. The Black Vault (2026). DoD IG Releases Final UAP Whistleblower Reprisal Report, 7th January 2026. FOIA release announcement.
7. U.S. Department of Defense Office of Inspector General. Whistleblower Reprisal Investigation, FOIA case DODOIG-2025-000932, released 7th January 2026 — 66 pages released, 44 withheld in full. Via The Black Vault. Public domain.
8. Office of Rep. Eric Burlison (2025). Rep. Burlison Welcomes Former U.S. Air Force Officer David Grusch as Special Advisor, 27th March 2025. U.S. House of Representatives. Public domain.
9. Kean, Leslie and Blumenthal, Ralph (2023). Intelligence Officials Say U.S. Has Retrieved Craft of Non-Human Origin. The Debrief, 5th June 2023. Secondary reporting; cited as such.