(NewsNation) — An Air Force veteran and former member of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency is coming forward with information on what he claims are extraterrestrial craft recovered and kept secret by the U.S. government.

Blurry videos of unidentified flying objects have long been a staple of those looking for evidence that stories of UFOs may not be conspiracy theories. In recent years, the government has taken a more vocal role in investigating such sightings, with Congress forming an official U.S. government “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” task force, recently renamed to the “All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office,” or AARO.

At the same time, NASA and other government agencies have repeatedly said there is no credible evidence of extraterrestrial activity on Earth, attributing most sightings to natural phenomena or human-made objects.

Now, Air Force veteran and former task force member David Grusch is formally blowing the whistle on secrets he said no one has ever shared publicly before.

Grusch spoke exclusively to award-winning investigative journalist Ross Coulthart, reporting for NewsNation. Coulthart has spent years reporting on the subject of UFOs.

In his role within the U.S. defense establishment, 36-year-old Grusch said he was trusted with some of the government’s most intimate secrets.

In his time at the UAP task force, Grusch said the group was refused access to a crash retrieval program.

“These are retrieving non-human origin technical vehicles, call it spacecraft if you will, non-human exotic origin vehicles that have either landed or crashed,” Grusch said.

According to Grusch, that includes spacecraft from quite a number of other species.

“I thought it was totally nuts and I thought at first I was being deceived, it was a ruse,” Grusch told Coulthart. “People started to confide in me. Approach me. I have plenty of senior, former, intelligence officers that came to me, many of which I knew almost my whole career, that confided in me that they were part of a program.”

Grusch said those officials named the program, which he had never heard of before.

“They told me, based on their oral testimony, and they provided me documents and other proof, that there was in fact a program that the UAP Task Force was not read into,” he said.

Grusch alleges the U.S. government has recovered non-human craft for decades. He recently filed a whistle-blower complaint, stating he gave what he referred to as classified “proof” to Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General.

NewsNation has confirmed Grusch’s credentials and resume, but has not seen or verified the alleged proof he said he provided to investigators. Grusch said he can’t show NewsNation the evidence for national security reasons.

Grusch also said he has not seen photos of the alleged craft himself, but has spoken extensively with other intelligence officials who have.

Grusch told NewsNation the American public has been lied to for decades.

“There is a sophisticated disinformation campaign targeting the U.S. populace which is extremely unethical and immoral,” Grusch said.

If Grusch’s statements are accurate, it would be the first time an official representative from the U.S. government has said we are not alone in the universe.

“We’re definitely not alone,” Grusch confirmed “The data points, quite empirically that we’re not alone.”

Grusch also told NewsNation it isn’t just spacecraft that have been recovered.

“Well, naturally, when you recover something that’s either landed or crashed. Sometimes you encounter dead pilots and believe it or not, as fantastical as that sounds, it’s true,” he said.

Journalist Leslie Kean broke Grusch’s whistleblower story Monday morning in “The Debrief.” Her career has been mainstream and credible, including a series of exclusive reports on UFOs for the New York Times, dating back to 2017.

“It is also harder for people to wrap their minds around the concept of a crashed object from someone else. I think it’s easier to accept we see things in the sky we can’t explain,” she said.

Kean said she’s had skeptics question her reporting before, noting many who had questions about a 2017 story on a Pentagon UFO program. A program, she said, the government confirmed the existence of three years later.

According to Kean, she has multiple sources that back up Grusch’s story.

Kean said the lack of documents or photographs from Grusch didn’t raise red flags for her, though of course she would like to see those documents.

“The problem with that is all of that information is classified. As we said in the story, everything that Grusch told Congress and told the Department of Defense Inspector General, all of that information is classified,” Kean said.

Grusch is aware some people will think he is making his story up but insists he is speaking the truth.

“I am for real. I am sitting here at great personal risk and obvious professional risk by talking to you today,” he said.

In a statement to NewsNation, the Pentagon said to date, “AARO has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”

“AARO is committed to following the data and its investigation wherever it leads,” the statement said.

AARO’s historical review of records and testimonies is due to Congress by June 2024.

The group said it “welcomes the opportunity to speak with a former or current employee or contractor who believes they have information relevant to this historical review.”