Marco Rubio Claims Top U.S. Officials Coming Forward With UFO Claims

Marco Rubio has claimed that those who have come forward regarding claims about the U.S. government retrieving alien aircraft "have held very high clearances and high positions within our government."

The senior senator for Florida and vice chair of the Select Committee on Intelligence was cautious not to reveal who had already come forward with information as part of an investigation by Congress into the matter when he spoke to NewsNation on Monday.

"Frankly a lot of them are very fearful," the Republican senator said. "Fearful of their jobs, fearful of their clearances, fearful of their career." Similarly, others involved in the investigation have been guarded about the details of the probe.

At the beginning of June, House Oversight Committee chair James Comer announced an investigation into allegations that a top-secret military program already had a fully intact UFO in its possession.

The investigation will be led by GOP Reps. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, a committee member, and Tim Burchett of Tennessee, who is not a committee member but has previously made claims about a government cover-up regarding an unidentified flying object.

The alien probe was launched after various claims were made publicly by David Grusch, a 36-year-old airforce veteran who previously worked at the National Reconnaissance Office on what is now referred to as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP).

Grusch told NewsNation, after featuring in an article on the same subject in Debrief, that the government had retrieved several "non-human origin technical vehicles," some of which contained "dead pilots."

"There are people who have come forward to share information with our committee over the last couple of years," Rubio said on Monday, adding in reference to Grusch: "I would imagine some of them are potentially some of the same people perhaps he's referring to."

In response to the NewsNation interview, Department of Defense spokesperson Sue Gough told the network that it had "not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of any extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently."

NASA also said following the publication of the claims that despite one of the space agency's priorities being searching for alien life, it too had not found credible evidence of it or UAPs.

Rachel Partlow, communications director for Burchett, told Newsweek on Wednesday that the congressman was "aware" of Grusch's claims, but could not comment on whether the veteran would be brought in to provide testimony as hearing dates and a witness list in the investigation had not been finalized.

"All I can say is Rep. Burchett wants this hearing to be done right, and he wants to bring in credible witnesses who can provide informative public testimony," she said.

Asked about who was coming forward as part of the investigation, Rubio said some were public figures who "we've heard from" in the past, while others had not spoken publicly on UFOs. Others, meanwhile, "still work in the government."

When questioned about whether he found the assertions credible, the senator responded that some of the claims "are beyond the realm of what any of us has ever dealt with," but that the inquiry would "intake the information without any prejudgement or jumping to any conclusions in one direction or another."

Rubio said: "I will say I find most of these people—at some point, or maybe even currently—have held very high clearances and high positions within our government, so you do ask yourself: 'What incentive would so many people with that kind of qualification... have to come forward and make something up?'"

Rep. Luna's communication director, Edie Heipel, reiterated to Newsweek on Monday that more information would be forthcoming once hearing dates were set.