(NewsNation) — One of the biggest stories of 2023 was the rapidly evolving conversation around UFOs, with NewsNation's exclusive reporting sparking a Congressional hearing, changes at the Pentagon and new legislation mandating disclosure on UFOs.
NewsNation special correspondent Ross Colthart interviewed former intelligence officer and Air Force veteran David Grusch, who claimed the U.S. has a top-secret military program to recover UFOs.
Grusch told NewsNation he believed the U.S. had recovered wreckage of UFOs, or as the government calls them, UAPs. Grusch said he began to hear about the program while serving on the government's UAP task force.
According to Grusch, the task force was denied access to the crash retrieval program. He referred to the recovered material as being of non-human origin. Grusch filed a whistleblower complaint before going public, saying he gave classified proof to Congress and the intelligence community inspector general.
The Inspector General called Grusch's complaint urgent and credible. Journalist Leslie Kean broke the story in a publication called "The Debrief."
While many have called Grush's complaints credible, he hasn't handed over any pictures or documents that provide proof. Grusch has told journalists the information is classified but said he has given more detail to the inspector general.
The Pentagon responded to NewsNation's request for an interview by saying that "AARO, the all-domain anomaly resolution office, had not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently."
But the months after Grusch's interview, AARO made changes, releasing new UFO videos and launching a new website to let military and government workers report UFO incidents for investigation.
Dr. Sean Kirckpatrick, who led the agency until December, said more whistleblowers have come forward privately, citing almost 40 people who have provided information to be researched and cross-referenced.
The Grusch interview also led to a Congressional hearing with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agreeing there needed to be more investigation into the issue.
Grusch testified under oath about what he discovered, including his belief that some of the recovered items included non-human biological material. Two other military veterans also testified about their encounters with unexplained objects. They described technology far superior to that which the U.S. has in its arsenal.
Grusch declined to give the names of people who told him about the program in a public setting but said he had provided that information to the intelligence committee and the inspector general.
Lawmakers called for Grusch to be questioned in a secure facility known as a SCIF. They also worked to mandate disclosure of information on UAPs, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY., co-authoring an amendment that would require the U.S. government to share all it knows about UFOs.
Schumer said the government has gathered information on UAPs over many decades but has refused to share that with the American people. Schumer said there are multiple credible sources who have come forward to say information on UAPs was also withheld from Congress in violation of the law.
However, the amendment was stripped down, including removing the establishment of a presidential panel to determine which records to declassify. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said the bill is just a start.
Grusch called the pared-down legislation the "greatest legislative failure in American history."
Meanwhile, the public is still searching for answers and evidence when it comes to UFOs.