Information provided through the process would be reviewed through the administration’s existing declassification procedures.

“Any information that is received that sheds light on the UAP mystery will ultimately be made public,” the official said.

A screensH๏τ of video footage from an alleged unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) sighting in the northeastern United States in July 2025, which was detailed in files released by the DOW and originally obtained by the FBI. (DOW/FBI)

The official said the administration does not know whether potential witnesses actually possess significant new information, but wants to remove any perceived legal barriers so investigators can determine whether previously undisclosed information exists.

“You don’t know what you don’t know,” the official said.

The official said the focus is on incidents that remain unexplained, rather than known foreign technology, classified U.S. programs or natural phenomena.

The latest directive builds on the Trump administration’s broader effort to declassify decades of government records related to unidentified anomalous phenomena. Previous releases have included FBI and Pentagon records describing unexplained sightings reported by military personnel, law enforcement and astronauts, including accounts of glowing “mother orbs” that witnesses said released smaller objects near a sensitive U.S. national security site, mysterious orange spheres observed during military operations, and Apollo-era transcripts in which astronauts described unexplained lights and “jagged, angular fragments” drifting outside their spacecraft.

The latest tranche of UAP records included expanded details and imagery from a 2015 incident involving an unidentified object over the Pantex nuclear weapons facility in Texas, along with newly declassified infrared footage showing a mysterious six-pointed star-shaped object tracked by a U.S. military sensor over the Yellow Sea on Jan. 1, 2025.

The official said the next tranche of files will be made available “very soon.”

The directive follows years of complaints from some lawmakers and whistleblowers that former officials with firsthand knowledge were reluctant to come forward because of secrecy obligations.

An artist’s rendering released by the U.S. Department of War depicting a 2023 sighting of “orbs launching other orbs” near a national security site in the western United States. (Department of War)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, then the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in 2023 that multiple individuals with firsthand knowledge had approached the committee but were hesitant to speak publicly because of potential repercussions.

“Some of these people still work in the government and frankly, a lot of them are very fearful — fearful of their jobs, fearful of their clearances, fearful of their career, and some, frankly, are fearful of harm coming to them,” he said on News Nation in June 2023.

“Grant immunity to anyone who has already come forward, and everyone who will come forward. Open the door and let them speak,” Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., demanded during a June 9 press conference on Capitol Hill.

Public interest in UAPs accelerated in 2017 after The New York Times revealed the Pentagon had quietly operated a secret program to investigate unexplained aerial encounters and published Navy cockpit videos showing objects exhibiting unusual flight characteristics.

Since then, Congress has held multiple bipartisan hearings on the issue, lawmakers have pressed intelligence agencies for greater transparency, and former intelligence officer David Grusch’s allegations that the government had concealed information about UAP programs renewed calls for additional disclosure, despite the government’s denial of his central claims.

During the same event, former Air Force intelligence officer Grusch renewed his allegations that secret UAP programs had operated outside normal congressional oversight, calling it “a real fraud, waste and abuse issue” and claiming his investigation uncovered “slush funds to the tune of billions of dollars per annum for these activities.”

The Pentagon has disputed Grusch’s central claims, and AARO has said its investigations found no verified evidence of extraterrestrial technology or credible evidence that the government has secretly recovered or reverse-engineered craft of non-human origin.