FOIA Release: Elizondo's Emails to DoD Public Affairs Disput

FOIA Release: Elizondo's Emails to DoD Public Affairs Dispute AATIP Statements

In a June 3, 2020 email released under FOIA case 21-F-0938, Luis D. Elizondo told DoD public affairs official Susan Gough that he 'ran the program' and that AATIP was 'all about UAPs.' The DoD's response letter notes it 'cannot validate the authenticity of the material contained in this record.'

Published

October 7, 2026

Declassified

Date not listed

Source agency

The Black Vault (FOIA archive)

foiadodaatipelizondoemailspublicaffairsdispute

DoD Final FOIA Response Adds Three Elizondo Email Pages

Nearly three years later, the Department's reply states that the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs (PA) and the DoD Office of the General Counsel (OGC) searched their records systems and located nine responsive pages. The arithmetic of the release is the first thing a reader notices. A previous response in the same case contained six pages.

This final response adds three more, described in the letter as an email exchange from a private citizen — an attachment to correspondence sent to a DoD employee. C. § 552 (b)(5), covering inter- and intra-agency memoranda that are deliberative in nature and contain subjective evaluations, opinions, and recommendations, and (b)(6), covering disclosure that would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

What makes the addition consequential is the Department's own caveat. The letter states plainly that the DoD cannot validate the authenticity of the material…

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Based on the official release at https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/aatip-and-the-pentagon-the-struggle-over-ufo-program-records/

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