FBI Director Kash Patel has confirmed that the first batch of secret files on UFOs has been submitted for release, bringing the public disclosure of alien life potentially only days away. Patel revealed on Tuesday that the initial wave of documents the US government has been keeping on alleged UFO encounters was already sent to the interagency committee assembled by the White House. According to Patel, those files will be released to the public 'in the very near future.'
The FBI director said on the Hang Out with Sean Hannity podcast: 'We already delivered our first tranche of information to that committee and they're going to be publicly releasing this information very soon. We are all for it. There's nothing in this subject that we're talking about that we don't want released.'
Patel, 46, noted that the process was being led by the US Department of War and Secretary Pete Hegseth after the February 19 order by President Trump to disclose what the intelligence community has discovered about extraterrestrials. Although Patel said his bureau had delivered a portion of these files to the team at the Pentagon handling alien disclosure, the FBI director said he personally did not have any information on whether the US had ever recovered alien bodies from crashed UFOs.
Speaking about the message President Trump sent to his agency, Patel said: 'The American public wants the documents. We've already delivered the documents. They're coming out. That's it.'
As America creeps closer to the apparent disclosure of alien life, famed UFO whistleblower and Air Force veteran David Grusch claimed that forces within the US government were still working to cover up the files before their release. While speaking with Chris Farrell on Judicial Watch, Grusch said: 'I see a lot of power plays, a lot of games, a lot of positioning. Certain agencies are moving people into positions to kind of control the information release.'
The Pentagon has already been slammed by Congress for missing a strict deadline to release nearly four dozen videos allegedly containing recordings of UFOs. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna penned a letter to Secretary Hegseth on April 1, ordering the Pentagon to deliver 46 specific clips no later than April 14, 2026. Lawmakers had said the videos could reveal patterns of activity near sensitive military sites and help determine whether the objects pose a potential national security threat. It is not known if those videos have been delivered.
Despite the actions he referred to as 'shenanigans,' Grusch said on Tuesday that he believed UFO disclosure would reach a tipping point within the next 60 to 90 days. 'I certainly know what Congress is doing, and I won't reveal that here, but I do see a lot of pressure to get the substantiative empirical holdings that I've talked about, not videos or anything like that, out in the ether,' the whistleblower detailed.
Grusch, who is now an advisor to Congressman Eric Burlison, spent 14 years in the Air Force before working as an intelligence officer for the National Reconnaissance Office, which builds and launches surveillance satellites for the Pentagon. He eventually became a whistleblower, testifying before Congress in 2023, after allegedly learning that elements of the US government had been hiding UFO retrieval and reverse-engineering programs for decades.
The widespread speculation about what information may be coming in the first batch of files has already caused concern among influential faith leaders, including a group of Christian pastors who claimed they were contacted by elements of the US government. Bishop Alan DiDio of the Revival Nation Church revealed during a March 7 podcast with other faith leaders that he was one of six Christian pastors invited to a secret meeting with US intelligence officials to prepare for UFO disclosure.
According to DiDio, fellow attendee and American evangelist Tony Merkel, and Tennessee pastor Perry Stone, who did not go to the reported meeting, officials believed the coming release would cause many Christians to lose faith in religion. Stone said in an April 27 video on YouTube: 'They're going to freak out and they're going to come to pastors, ministers, and teachers and say, "What is this? Is this really real?"' Stone's claims about the meeting, which went viral online, were later confirmed by DiDio, who said the meeting recently took place in 'an Airbnb in the mountains of Tennessee.'
On Tuesday, Congresswoman Luna publicly requested that the Christian bishop reveal which intelligence officials held this meeting. Lawmakers want to know which intelligence officials took part in an alleged meeting with Christian pastors which discussed UFO disclosure. Luna has been put in charge of the House Oversight committee tasked with declassifying government secrets, including what US agencies know about extraterrestrial intelligence.
Although President Trump has publicly remained skeptical about the existence of alien life, he recently revealed that the UFO files would contain some 'very interesting' things for the public, echoing Patel's claim that the files would emerge 'very, very soon.' During a meeting with the crew of NASA's Artemis II moon mission, the president also noted that he had spoken with military pilots who revealed incidents involving what they believed were non-human craft. 'I interviewed some pilots. Very solid people, and they said they saw things that you wouldn't believe,' Trump said.
To this point, the US government and the Pentagon have maintained for decades that there has never been physical evidence that UFOs and alien life exist.
