Pentagon creates legal waiver allowing personnel sworn to UFO secrecy to come forward
By
Richard Pollina Published Sep. 15, 2026, 2:19 a.m. EDT
The Pentagon is now allowing current and former personnel sworn to secrecy about
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) activity to legally share that information with the government.
A legal waiver has been created and this will allow past and present service members, civilians and contractors to provide UAP-related National Defense Information to official representatives of PURSUE — the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, the Trump administration’s UAP task force, the Department of War
said Monday.
The waiver overrides any existing non-disclosure agreements or Special Access Program Indoctrination Agreements when the information is provided through the authorized PURSUE channel.
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The Pentagon issued a legal waiver allowing personnel to share classified UFO secrets with the PURSUE task force without facing any penalties. Ron Sachs – CNP for NY Post
The move aims to create a pathway to review and potentially declassify UAP-related documents — directly aligning with President Trump’s mandate for comprehensive transparency on UAPs.
It
expands on a July directive in which the Trump administration ordered the Department of War and the intelligence community to permit former employees with UAP knowledge to come forward to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) or PURSUE.
Before Monday’s announcement, anyone with access to classified UAP information remained bound by those same NDAs and Special Access Program Indoctrination Agreements — known as SAPIAs.
For decades, fear of legal liability and losing their security clearance kept those with UAP knowledge silent — until now.
Under the new waiver, those who come forward to PURSUE cannot be punished, stripped of their clearance or face legal or administrative penalties for breaking their NDAs.
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A still from a previously released unclassified US government video appearing to show unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) is shown on the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) website on Oct. 19, 2023. AARO/SWNS
“This waiver removes those barriers by explicitly authorizing covered disclosures to PURSUE representatives without triggering breach-of-agreement penalties or standard NDA violations,” the Department of War said.
Trump has said repeatedly that he is skeptical about the existence of alien life, but mandated transparency about UFOs after former President Barack Obama said of aliens during a February interview: “
They’re real, but I haven’t seen them.“
The Trump administration’s most recent UFO files release revealed that government employees witnessed
a triangle UFO near Colorado Springs in 2023.
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Former Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray points to a video display of a UAP during a House Intelligence, Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee hearing on “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on May 17, 2022. AP
While the waiver opens the door for current and former government personnel to report UAP activity, it remains unclear whether the Pentagon has any plans to investigate the massive number of UFO sightings reported by the general public.
Earlier this month, famed TV host Dr. Phil McGraw accused
the Pentagon of disregarding more than 1,800 legitimate UAP reports submitted by members of the public.
The only options available to the public are two private, non-government databases — the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) and the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) — that allow anyone to submit reports about UFOs and unexplained encounters.
Through NUFORC’s catalog of data, more than 1,800 UFO reports were classified as “Tier 1,” meaning they represented the most credible sightings on record, McGraw pointed out.
The AARO —
the Pentagon division responsible for examining UFO sightings — has repeatedly promised to begin accepting public reports, but has yet to do so.
AARO said on its website that “reporting is limited at this time to current or former US Government employees, military personnel, or contractor personnel with direct knowledge of US Government programs or activities related to UAP dating back to 1945.”
