Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the printed transcript of a September 9, 2025 hearing held by the U.S. House Oversight Committee's Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, chaired by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna. The witnesses were Jeffrey Nuccetelli, Alexandro Wiggins, George Knapp, Dylan Borland and Joe Spielberger. They described UAP incursions at Vandenberg Air Force Base from 2003 to 2005 and a tic-tac-shaped object seen from USS Jackson in 2023. Members criticized AARO and called for whistleblower protections and the UAP Disclosure Act.
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33 Mr. BORLAND. About what I saw is the reason why I got into what I know and has been disclosed to AARO and the IG. And I think that information, while it was—it was labeled an extremely sensitive national security issue. Mr. CRANE. Thank you. Mr. Knapp, I have watched many of your videos on Joe Rogan and other places. One of the big questions, I think, for many of us is why do you believe that the Federal Gov- ernment refuses to be transparent about this issue? Mr. KNAPP. I think there is probably multiple reasons. At the start, when these things first started invading our skies in large numbers, we were scared. It was right after World War II, and we did not know what they were, and they did not want to panic the public, and that was probably a good call. Over time, I think the lying sort of became institutionalized, you know? Flights over Washington, D.C. in 1952, they are seen, they are captured on radar, jets are chased after these objects, and then we get an expla- nation it was a temperature inversion. And those kind of lies have been told for a long time. What was told to me by an investigator from Congress, a guy named Richard D’Amato, who was sent after this story by Robert Byrd and Harry Reid, he came out to Nevada, tried to get into Area 51, did get in there, looked around, talked to people, trying to get to the bottom of it. He believed that this program, reverse engi- neering, et cetera, was inside—had been moved inside these cor- porations. And he said, when this comes out, people are going to go to prison. And he meant people who were basically misusing le- gitimate national security funds, tens of billions of dollars in order to keep this coverup going. I also believe there is a legitimate reason for the coverup in that there is undeniable connection of national security involved in this technology. If we are racing for it—to master that technology against the Russians and the Chinese, which is what I have been told by Senator Reid and many others, then it is a race that is crit- ical to our survival. There could be a form of disclosure, I think. Yes, it is real, it is from somewhere else, without revealing all the details that would allow someone else to have an advantage in the race for this tech- nology. Mr. CRANE. Thank you. Finally, I would like to enter into the testimony a letter I sent to the DOD regarding the case of Major David Charles Grusch, a UAP whistleblower who has been ex- tremely helpful to this Committee. Unfortunately, due to his par- ticipation in the disclosure of UAP, he suffered reprisal like the re- moval of his clearance, denial of promotion, and loss of medical re- tirement. I wrote the DOD on July 24, 2025, on behalf of Major Grusch, and I am still waiting for a reply. I appreciate any help the Committee can offer to get a response. Thank you. I yield back. Mrs. LUNA. Without objection. Mrs. LUNA. We will be following up with the DOD after this hearing. Thank you, Representative Crane. I would next like to recognize Representative Gill for 5 minutes. Mr. GILL. Thank you, Chairwoman Luna, for holding this hear- ing, and I would like to yield a minute of my time to you.
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Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 54 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.