CIA Tells Senate They Obstructed Federal UFO Investigations

A current CIA operations officer testified under oath this week that his own agency obstructed a federal investigation that included UFOs, illegally monitored its personnel, and took back forty boxes of files being prepared for public release. According to testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on May 13, James Erdman III, a senior operations officer still employed by the CIA, said he led the Director’s Initiatives Group, or the DIG, on joint duty at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence between March 2025 and April 2026 under DNI Tulsi Gabbard. The DIG investigated three areas, one of which was UAP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEz2qPWG3SA

Erdman testified that the CIA refused to provide the information needed to determine why analytic standards were violated, monitored the computers and phones of DIG personnel, and tracked their contact with whistleblowers. As noted in his sworn statement, one CIA contractor was fired the day after meeting with the DIG team. Erdman was the head of a federal investigation telling Congress that the CIA was actively frustrating his work. CIA communications director Liz Lyons called the hearing dishonest political theater, but according to Townhall and the Daily Caller, she did not address any of the specific obstruction claims.

This is not the first account of the DIG operating against the people it was set up to serve. Matthew Brown, the former State Department analyst who authored the Immaculate Constellation report, described on the Weaponized podcast a separate ODNI meeting at Liberty Crossing where a promised UAP whistleblower protection program was never offered to him. According to Brown, the framework was used to influence Congress to shut down UAP inquiry rather than to protect witnesses. Both whistleblowers were explicit that they do not place this on Director Gabbard. They place it on personnel embedded inside the structure she authorized.

Matthew Brown

Erdman also testified that when the DIG ceased operations in April, the CIA took back forty boxes of JFK and MK Ultra files that DNI Gabbard’s office was processing for declassification. DNI press secretary Olivia Coleman posted on X that there was no raid on the DNI office, and Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna issued her own May 14 post stating she never used the word raid. What Luna has consistently said is that the files were taken. On NewsNation, she warned that if the documents are not returned within twenty-four hours, the faces of those involved will be made public and a motion for a subpoena will follow, with possible contempt of Congress proceedings.

Congressman Eric Burlison responded on X, calling the CIA’s official statement one of the worst days in recent history for the agency’s credibility. Reference his earlier interview with The Hill, where Burlison said the first PURSUE batch of UAP files was low-hanging fruit and that real disclosure work will require pressing the CIA and federally funded research and development centers, possibly with subpoenas. Erdman closed his statement with a direct call for another Church Committee, the 1970s investigation that exposed illegal CIA surveillance and assassination plots against foreign leaders. 

Sources

C-SPAN. (2026, May 13). CIA whistleblower alleges federal cover-up of COVID-19 origins [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iKFaL8qPbM

Immaculate Constellation. (2024). In Congress.gov. https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/117721/documents/HHRG-118-GO12-20241113-SD003.pdf

Jeremy Corbell. (2026, March 18). Matthew Brown exposes how whistleblowers are being set up [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ1MZF6qnFI

NewsNation. (2026, May 14). Rep. Luna: CIA’s seizure of JFK and MK-Ultra files an ‘internal coup’ | Katie Pavlich Tonight [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slI1uGwihlw

Vespa, M. (2026, May 14). About that CIA Raid on Tulsi Gabbard’s Office. . . townhall.com. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2026/05/14/why-the-cia-was-not-pleased-with-yesterdays-covid-whistleblower-hearing-n267601