Portal on U.S. soil and Congress’ UFO Office Conflict

When President Trump directed federal agencies to release all government files related to UFOs and extraterrestrial life, three major developments landed in the same news cycle that together paint a complicated picture of where UFO disclosure actually stands.

Investigative journalist Ross Coulthart, reporting for NewsNation, stated publicly during a live Q and A that he recently visited a location inside the United States that he believes the government is concealing behind a US Forest Service designation. According to Coulthart, the site has a large security fence, official warning signs, and is publicly described as protected archaeological land containing ancient tribal ruins. He said that description is not accurate and that he has coordinates. Coulthart also referenced a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory official who reportedly briefed a private individual about portal exposure following an anomalous experience at a separate site in Mexico, adding an institutional dimension to the account.

Chris Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, responded directly to Trump’s disclosure directive in a public statement. According to Mellon, there is already sufficient evidence in the public record for a reasonable person to suspect non-human technology has been operating in Earth’s skies and oceans since at least World War II. However, he cautioned that a genuine confirmation will not arrive through a National Archives data dump. Per Mellon’s assessment, any agency head holding information of that significance would take it directly to the White House, not release it in a public file transfer. He also noted that a portion of UAP files contain classified US military technology — advanced aircraft reported as unidentified simply because witnesses lacked clearance — and that separating those cases from genuinely unexplained ones takes time and carries national security implications.

On the institutional side, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson confirmed in an official Department of War video that AARO — the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, established by Congress in 2022 — is now coordinating directly with the White House and federal agencies to consolidate and release UAP records. AARO currently manages over 2,000 reported UAP cases, with approximately 1,000 lacking sufficient data for any analysis. The office’s 2025 annual report remains unpublished, and the second volume of its congressionally directed historical record report is nearly two years overdue.

The placement of AARO at the center of this process creates a direct tension with Representative Anna Paulina Luna, Chair of the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets and co-chair of the Congressional UAP Caucus. Luna is an Air Force veteran who has been one of the most consistent and vocal critics of AARO inside Congress. She has publicly called for AARO to be defunded and called former director Sean Kirkpatrick a documented liar. She has testified that AARO brushed aside credible reports, slow-walked investigations, and dismissed whistleblower testimony rather than pursuing it, with concerns raised that the office functioned less as a genuine investigative body and more as a mechanism to collect sensitive accounts from witnesses and then discredit them. 

Luna's conflict with AARO

Under Kirkpatrick’s leadership, AARO also opposed key provisions of the UAP Disclosure Act, contributing directly to the bill being stripped of its independent oversight board and eminent domain authority — two provisions widely considered essential for any meaningful disclosure process to function.

Despite that documented history, Luna now finds herself operating within the same multi-agency process that has placed AARO at its center. She confirmed active communication with ODNI — the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which coordinates all 18 US intelligence agencies — along with the FBI, the Pentagon, and the White House simultaneously on UAP matters. She stated publicly that she is looking forward to sharing what she and others have personally seen, a firsthand statement from the chair of the declassification task force that carries significant weight.

Sources

All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office [@DoW_AARO]. (2026, February 28). [Post]. X. https://x.com/DoW_AARO/status/2027805103931940881

Gomez, C. (2026, March 2). Congresswoman Luna names FBI and Pentagon in UFO talks. UFO News. https://www.ufonews.co/post/congresswoman-luna-names-fbi-and-pentagon-in-ufo-talks

Mellon, C. K. [@ChrisKMellon]. (2026, March 1). [Post]. X. https://x.com/ChrisKMellon/status/2027898728082821475

NewsNation. (2026, March 1). Ross Coulthart Q&A: Obama’s UFO flip-flop, reptilians and consciousness | Reality Check [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzPKcQEBoiY