David Grusch
David Grusch is a former U.S. intelligence officer who served at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and as the NRO's representative to the UAP Task Force. In 2023, Grusch became the most high-profile UAP whistleblower in U.S. history when he testified under oath before the House Oversight Committee, alleging that the U.S. government has been in possession of non-human intelligence craft and biologics for decades and that this information has been illegally withheld from Congress. His testimony drew significant media attention and catalyzed further congressional UAP investigations. Grusch filed a whistleblower complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General, which was reportedly found credible and urgent.
| Role | UAP whistleblower; former National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) officer; former National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) representative to the UAP Task Force |
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Role in UAP Programs
In sworn congressional testimony, Grusch alleged that UAP legacy programs are funded through misappropriation of funds and Independent Research and Development (IRAD) overcharging by defense contractors, identifying these as the primary mechanisms by which clandestine programs persist outside standard oversight. He specifically noted that the post-9/11 reallocation of defense funds to overseas contingency operations created conditions under which contractors could use IRAD to fund UAP-related work with minimal oversight. Representative Moskowitz directly questioned Grusch about misappropriation mechanisms during the 2023 hearings. Grusch also alleged that Northrop Grumman is among the contractors involved in UAP legacy program activities, and that personnel networks connecting corporate and government roles have sustained these programs across decades.
1933 Magenta, Italy UFO Crash
In his News Nation interview with journalist Ross Coulthart, Grusch made direct public statements identifying the 1933 Magenta, Italy UFO crash/retrieval as the first non-human intelligence craft forcibly recovered by U.S. forces. Grusch stated:
"In 1933 was the first recovery in Europe in Magenta, Italy. They recovered a partially intact vehicle. It's true, it's real. That actually happened. The Italian government moved it to a secure airbase in Italy for the rest of the fascist regime until 1944, 1945. And the Pope, Pius XII, back-channeled that — so the Vatican was involved — and told the Americans what the Italians had, and we ended up scooping it."
When Coulthart asked directly, "Let me be very clear about this: you're saying that the Catholic Church, the Vatican, they know about the existence of non-human intelligence on this planet?", Grusch responded affirmatively: "Certainly."
This testimony marked the first time a credentialed U.S. intelligence whistleblower publicly confirmed the Magenta case and explicitly connected the Vatican and Pope Pius XII to the craft's transfer from Mussolini's Italy to American possession via Office of Strategic Services (OSS) agents.
Whistleblower Network
Grusch has been in contact with other UAP whistleblowers including Michael Herrera, who confirmed speaking with Grusch as part of broader disclosure coordination efforts. This suggests Grusch maintains an active role in connecting whistleblowers and facilitating information sharing within the UAP disclosure community even after his public congressional testimony.
Attempts to Contact AARO
Grusch has publicly stated that he attempted to approach AARO and its director Sean Kirkpatrick but received no response. This directly contradicts Sean Kirkpatrick's claim in his Scientific American op-ed that no whistleblowers elected to contact AARO. Grusch and Kirkpatrick differ in a significant respect: Grusch has testified before Congress under oath; Kirkpatrick has not.
Judicial Watch Interview: SAP Loopholes and Legacy Program Structure
In an interview with Judicial Watch that UAP Gerb describes as "probably the best interview I've ever seen on the topic," Grusch laid out in granular detail the legal and bureaucratic mechanisms he alleges legacy UFO programs have used to evade congressional oversight. Grusch stated that the National Security Council's Eisenhower-era 5412 Committee — a five-member body — was the genesis of the legacy program's control structure, and that the program's administrative cognizance "changed over time epochs" as its custodians deliberately rotated responsibility among career civil servants and senior industry executives to avoid any single office or individual holding continuous, traceable control.
Grusch described a specific loophole exploited by the programs: creating a White House Special Access Program that is designated non-covert action rather than covert action under 50 U.S. Code § 3093. Because covert action programs are legally required to be reported to the congressional "Gang of Eight" or "Gang of Four," but non-covert-action White House SAPs carry no such statutory carve-out or reporting requirement, Grusch stated this structure allows a program to be known to as few as "five people in the NSC... and the president at one time," with custodianship spread across the Pentagon and other agencies. Grusch also described the most restrictive class of SAP as a "bigoted, waived Special Access Program" — a waived SAP (meaning limited congressional reporting) additionally restricted "by name" — see Bigot List.
Grusch further stated that legacy programs have used misappropriation of funds — including defense contractors overcharging the government through IRAD and diverting the resulting margin into black programs — as well as "haircuts" taken across other classified programs and self-funding cutout companies, drawing a direct comparison to Iran-Contra-era funding schemes. He stated he personally encountered a "government-run criminal enterprise" siphoning money to fund crash retrieval operations off the books, and that the matter had been referred to the Department of Justice for federal investigation.
On the subject of retaliation, Grusch described what he and UAP Gerb term "administrative terrorism": after his 2023 public testimony, he stated that "manufactured allegations" were made against him from a security and personal-conduct perspective, that his former NGA chief of staff had a clearance revocation attempt made against him, and that his former boss at the NRO had his clearance revoked. Grusch stated he has been seeking FOIA-related documents on his own reprisal case since 2022 and has been denied under a law-enforcement-records exemption, forcing him to consider litigation against the relevant agencies.
Sources
- Video - The 1933 Magenta, Italy UFO Crash
- Video - The Modern Day UFO Disinformation Agent - Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick's Lies
- Video - Northrop Grumman & TRW - UFO Reverse Engineering, Material Exploitation, & Legacy Programs Vol.2
- Video - National Reconnaissance Office - UFO Crash Retrievals, Surveillance, and Legacy Program Gatekeepers
- Video - Deep Underground Military Bases (D.U.M.Bs.) - UFO Legacy Programs
- Video - Michael Herrera - Insights into UAP Encounter and Black Program Insiders
- Video - Special Access Required - the Secrecy of UFO Crash Retrieval Programs Vol.2