The UAP Answer Nobody At ODNI Will Release

The man who led the federal government’s UAP investigation says the work is complete, the findings are written down, and the decision about whether the public ever reads them now rests inside one office at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

James Erdman III, a former senior CIA operations officer, led major investigations for the Director’s Initiatives Group, known as the DIG. That task force was created by then Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in April 2025 and housed inside ODNI. It reviewed records tied to Havana syndrome, election material, and UAP. Erdman ran the UAP portion. In a new on-camera interview with investigative journalist Catherine Herridge, he confirmed he led that effort, said he was satisfied with the outcome, and said it is up to Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas to make sure the information reaches the public. Lukas has held that post since July 2025 and briefly served as acting director after Gabbard stepped down at the end of June.

Erdman first went on the record under oath on May 13, testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee under a subpoena issued on May 5. According to that testimony, the CIA obstructed the DIG’s work, monitored the phones and computers of its personnel, and tracked their contact with whistleblowers. He also testified that after the group was shut down, the agency took back roughly forty boxes of files tied to MK Ultra and the John F. Kennedy assassination that the DIG had been processing. The agency’s communications director dismissed the hearing as political theater.

James Erdman III

Asked by Herridge whether he stands by the surveillance claim, Erdman said he does. He described a private conversation on a secure line with a whistleblower being joined by someone who should not have been there, said ODNI technical staff indicated that access required a deliberate change, and said the individual on the other end worked out of a CIA office involved in accessing phone lines. On a separate matter, he said his investigation found credible firsthand evidence that records concerning directed energy attacks were destroyed, and that as far as he knows no action has followed. Destroying federal records is a criminal offense.

That account lines up with earlier reporting. According to journalist Christopher Sharp at Liberation Times, multiple sources claimed the DIG’s UAP investigation was compromised, with the stated aim of discouraging Congress from holding further UAP hearings and deterring others from coming forward. Reference that reporting for the claims aired by Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp, in which Corbell said an ODNI contact relayed three damaging characterizations about whistleblower Matthew Brown. An ODNI official noted that information discussed in a SCIF is not automatically classified and that meeting in one does not by itself grant whistleblower protections. The same sources said some DIG members appeared to be examining UAP in good faith, and that there was no indication Gabbard was involved in any effort to smear anyone.

Erdman also told Herridge that finished products exist and could be released now, naming anomalous health incidents, and UAP. Asked whether an incoming director could release them on arrival, he said yes, with some redactions likely, and added that a failure to release would itself be an indication of how much accountability is coming. Jay Clayton is President Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, and his final confirmation vote is days away. A permanent director carries authority an acting one tends not to exercise.

Matthew Brown, meanwhile, sat down with Chris Farrell on the Judicial Watch program On Watch. He described taking his discovery through three levels of superiors and receiving reactions that ranged from being told to pretend he never saw it, to being told nobody knew what it was, to being told not to sign anything and to go away. Giving his side of the Liberation Times account, Brown said he went to the Liberty Crossing intelligence campus expecting a briefing on a whistleblower protection program under DIG’s jurisdiction, declined the Intelligence Community Inspector General route after Dylan Borland warned that his own interview felt like an assessment of how much he knew, and came away believing the group cared more about which classified compartments he had accessed than about what he was telling them. He believes that is how the damaging label attached to him. What he is asking for now is release from his secrecy obligations so he can testify publicly and under oath about what he calls urgent threats.

Sources

Catherine Herridge Reports. (2026, July 27). Catherine Herridge Reports: The shadow government [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu5Qiq0yqSU

Judicial Watch. (2026, July 27). Whistleblower Matt Brown on “Immaculate Constellation” and UAPs [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DffuAUbNL98

Sharp, C. (2026, March 27). Director of National Intelligence UFO inquiry rocked by claims of whistleblower smears and intimidation. Liberation Times. https://www.liberationtimes.com/home/director-of-national-intelligence-ufo-inquiry-rocked-by-claims-of-whistleblower-smears-and-intimidation?rq=Initiatives%20group