Pentagon offers new ‘targeted legal relief’ for UAP whistleblowers supporting Trump’s PURSUE work
The Pentagon issued a formal waiver to protect whistleblowers who wish to disclose new information about the government’s involvement with unidentified anomalous phenomena and related technologies from prosecution or career retaliation.
An announcement on Monday indicates the Defense Department is actively voiding certain agreements that have previously kept individuals from speaking freely with representatives authorized under the Trump administration’s Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE) project.
“This targeted legal relief establishes an authorized pipeline for systematic review, security evaluation, and potential declassification of historical and ongoing UAP data in furtherance of national mission objectives,” DOD officials wrote in a press release.
Mounting public calls for disclosure and growing alarm that some modern UAP could be high-tech adversarial platforms sparked a clear mandate from Congress that led the Biden administration to set up the department’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) in 2022.
It operates as an information-gathering body that investigates the Pentagon’s ever-growing caseload of UAP incidents and synchronizes military data sharing with other parts of the federal government.
President Donald Trump unveiled the broader PURSUE effort early this year, instructing all federal agencies and military branches to aggregate their internal UAP records for potential declassification and public dissemination down the line.
Past and present civilian personnel, service members, and contractors with current or prior access to UAP-related national defense information are directed by the Pentagon to disclose what they know “directly to official PURSUE representatives,” according to Monday’s press release.
The new waiver notably supersedes civil and administrative enforcement provisions contained within Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and Special Access Program Indoctrination Agreements (SAPIAs) that were executed in the U.S. This policy is strictly for communications with the PURSUE team.
“Historically, individuals with direct knowledge of UAP-related programs cited concerns regarding potential legal liability, loss of clearances, or administrative prosecution stemming from standard NDAs and SAP indoctrination terms,” officials wrote. “This waiver removes those barriers by explicitly authorizing covered disclosures to PURSUE representatives without triggering breach-of-agreement penalties or standard NDA violations.”
Pentagon spokespersons did not identify PURSUE representatives or respond to questions from DefenseScoop about the new waiver on Monday.
“Today’s action establishes an authorized, legally protected pathway for those individuals to provide what they know to designated investigators. Removing those barriers matters,” said the Disclosure Foundation’s Executive Director Jordan Flowers. “This is a meaningful step toward establishing the facts and toward the transparency and accountability the American public has been asking for.”
The Disclosure Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that convenes experts, briefs lawmakers, and issues evidence-based guidance to advance the science and understanding of UAP.
The team supports whistleblowers who have direct knowledge of U.S. government work associated with UAP — including some who point to security clearances, NDAs, and potential legal or administrative consequences as existing impediments to coming forward.
Flowers noted that the foundation continues to represent people who aim to submit new UAP information lawfully to Congress.
“Binding law protects individuals who share information with AARO and now PURSUE against lawsuit, prosecution, and retaliation regardless of an NDA — or any other restraint,” he told DefenseScoop.
