'Exposing the Truth': Who Said What at the November 2024 UAP Hearing

At 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, November 13, 2024, four witnesses sat down in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building. A week after a presidential election, Congress was talking about UFOs again.

The hearing had a title built for a movie poster: "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth." Two House Oversight subcommittees ran it jointly, led by Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin.

It was the committee's second major UAP hearing, after David Grusch's testimony in July 2023. This one had more witnesses, a mystery document, and an answer from the Pentagon that landed the very next day.

Who was at the table

The witnesses, as listed in the official transcript:

• Luis Elizondo, author and former Department of Defense official.
• Dr. Tim Gallaudet, retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, CEO of Ocean STL Consulting.
• Michael Gold, former NASA associate administrator for space policy and partnerships and a member of NASA's UAP independent study team.
• Michael Shellenberger, founder of the news outlet Public.

Mace set the goal in her opening: "to learn the extent of the programs and activities our government has engaged in with respect to UAPs." Grothman said he'd been interested in the topic "since eighth grade," and worried about "the American public, who right now I do not think have trust."

Elizondo: "UAP are real"

Elizondo opened with the line everyone quoted.

"Let me be clear. UAP are real."

"I believe we are in the midst of a multidecade secretive arms race," he said. He described "a culture of suppression and intimidation," including "unwarranted criminal investigations, harassment, and efforts to destroy one's credibility."

He also took aim at the Pentagon's press shop, saying its public affairs office "openly employs a professional psychological operations officer as the singular point of contact" on UAP.

The crash-retrieval claims came in questioning. Mace asked whether the government had conducted secret UAP crash-retrieval programs. "Yes," Elizondo said. Were they designed to identify and reverse-engineer alien craft? "Yes."

Rep. Eric Burlison asked whether anything had been described to him about possession of bodies. "Yes. Yes, sir," Elizondo said. Pressed on reverse-engineering, he said: "I am not authorized to discuss specifics about crash retrievals." Rep. Anna Paulina Luna asked which country started the first back-engineering program. He said he couldn't have "that conversation in public."

Gallaudet: the email that vanished

Gallaudet's testimony was the most specific.

"Confirmation that UAPs are real came to me in January 2015," he said. He described an email from the commander of Fleet Forces, flagged "URGENT SAFETY OF FLIGHT ISSUE," that included what he said is "now known as the Go Fast video." The message, as he recounted it, ended: "If any of you know what these are, tell me ASAP."

Then, he said, "the email was wiped or deleted from our accounts." Asked by Rep. Andy Biggs whether he made inquiries, Gallaudet said, "No, I did not, sir."

When Ranking Member Robert Garcia asked what UAP could be, Gallaudet answered: "Strong evidence that they are nonhuman higher intelligence."

Before the hearing, former AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick had publicly attacked Gallaudet. "Mr. Gallaudet is clearly still bitter that I didn't hire him into AARO when he came looking for a job," Kirkpatrick said, according to Universe Today. At the hearing, Gallaudet said AARO had "new leadership" and had reached out to meet again, which he took "as a good-faith effort."

Gold: "I am here today to speak out for science"

Gold was the panel's scientist-adjacent voice and its most cautious.

"Our best tool for unlocking the mystery of UAP is science," he said, warning that "those who wish to explore the phenomenon are often confronted with resistance and ridicule." He urged NASA to lean in: "The NASA brand is synonymous with hope, optimism, and credibility."

Asked what UAP are, Gold said: "Do not know, but we must find out." Asked whether NASA's study team had been briefed on AAWSAP, the old DIA program, he said: "We did not get briefed."

Shellenberger: "Immaculate Constellation"

Shellenberger brought paper.

He told the panel that "the U.S. Government is not being transparent about what it knows" and described "an active and highly secretive DoD unacknowledged special access program." He said "Immaculate Constellation serves as a central or parent USAP," a term for a program whose existence is not officially acknowledged.

Mace entered his document into the record. It was, she said, "12 pages about this unacknowledged special access program that your government says does not exist."

Did he have more than one credible source? "I do," Shellenberger said. Were any employed by private contractors? "I would rather not say." Rep. Clay Higgins pressed: can't, or won't? "I will not say."

The Pentagon's position had been on file before the hearing. "The Department of Defense has no record, present or historical, of any type of SAP called 'IMMACULATE CONSTELLATION,'" spokesperson Sue Gough said in a statement published by The Black Vault.

The one question everyone answered the same way

The cleanest moment came from Garcia, a Democrat. Did each witness believe the federal government is knowingly concealing evidence about UAP from the public?

"Yes, sir," said Gallaudet. "One hundred percent," said Elizondo. "Yes," said Shellenberger. "Yes," said Gold.

Mace added a complaint about the office meant to fix that. "I am disturbed that AARO itself lacks transparency," she said, noting that even its budget is kept from the public, according to DefenseScoop.

The Pentagon answers, one day later

On November 14, the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office released its annual report. The timing looked like a reply, whether or not it was meant as one.

AARO said it received 757 new reports between May 2023 and June 2024, NBC News reported. It flagged 21 cases that "merit further analysis" for anomalous characteristics or behavior, and archived 444 that lacked enough data.

And it repeated the office's bottom line: AARO has found no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology.

AARO director Jon Kosloski was candid about the leftovers. Of some cases, he said, "I do not understand. And I don't know anybody else who understands them either."

What we know, and what we don't

What we know

• Under oath, Elizondo said the government has run UAP crash-retrieval programs and that he was told of bodies; Gallaudet said a 2015 Navy email about UAP was deleted.
• All four witnesses said they believe the federal government is knowingly concealing UAP evidence.
• The Pentagon says it has no record of "Immaculate Constellation," and AARO says it has found no evidence of extraterrestrial technology.

What we don't

• Who wrote Shellenberger's 12-page document, and whether any member of Congress has verified it in a classified setting.
• What happened to the January 2015 email Gallaudet described.
• What the 21 cases AARO flagged as anomalous actually were.

Two sets of sworn officials, two stories

Strip it down and you have a familiar standoff. Former insiders, under oath, say the programs exist. The current Pentagon, on the record, says it has looked and found nothing.

The difference this time was volume. Four witnesses, across the Navy, NASA, the Pentagon and journalism, gave the same yes to the same question. And a lawmaker put a document describing a program the Pentagon says doesn't exist into the Congressional Record.

So which carries more weight with you: four witnesses under oath, or a Pentagon report released the next morning? Tell us why in the comments.

Sources

• Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth (hearing transcript, Serial No. 118-135) — U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2024
• Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth (hearing page and video) — House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, 2024
• Mace, Grothman Announce Joint Hearing on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena — House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, 2024
• Lawmakers urge Pentagon to be more transparent about ongoing UAP investigations — DefenseScoop, 2024
• Congressional Hearing Fuels Fresh Debate About UFOs — Universe Today, 2024
• Pentagon Refuses to Search for 'Immaculate Constellation' Emails — The Black Vault, 2026
• Pentagon received hundreds of new UAP reports, but says no evidence of extraterrestrial activity — NBC News, 2024