Whistleblower Who Made UFO Reports Public Accuses Pentagon of Coordinated Campaign to Defame Him

The Pentagon building is seen in Washington in a file photograph. (AFP via Getty Images)

Lue Elizondo, a former Pentagon official who made UFO reports public, is claiming that the U.S. military, including a top official, coordinated a campaign to intimidate and defame him.

Elizondo is the former head of the U.S. government’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which was disbanded in 2012. Five years later, he made three UAP (unexplained aerial phenomena) videos public, which were later confirmed to be true by the military and were under investigation.

According to Politico, Elizondo filed a 64-page complaint on May 3 with the Defense Department’s Inspector General’s Office (IG), accusing several people of trying to defame him, interfering with his ability to gain employment, and affecting his security clearance.

“What he is saying is there are certain individuals in the Defense Department who, in fact, were attacking him and lying about him publicly, using the color of authority of their offices to disparage him and discredit him, and were interfering in his ability to seek and obtain gainful employment out in the world,” said Daniel Sheehan, Elizondo’s attorney.

The complaint reportedly includes dozens of supporting documents and accuses individuals of “malicious activities, coordinated disinformation, professional misconduct, whistleblower reprisal, and explicit threats perpetrated by certain senior-level Pentagon officials.”

According to Elizondo’s legal team, he has met with the IG several times and has evidentiary documents, including emails and public records, “which suggests a coordinated effort to obfuscate the truth from the American people while impugning my reputation as a former intelligence officer at the Pentagon.”

Elizondo claims that in one instance shortly after leaving government service, a senior official gave him notice that he would “tell people you are crazy, and it might impact your security clearance.”

“I responded ... by telling him that he can take any action he thinks is prudently necessary, but that I was not mentally impaired, nor have I ever violated my security oath,” Elizondo stated in the complaint.

He didn’t meet with the individual again, because Elizondo “feared he would take retribution against me.”

The complaint further alleges that there was an apparent disinformation campaign involving internet bloggers who were told that Elizondo didn’t have duties in the AATIP and that he didn’t study UFOs.

“Several internet bloggers were notified ... that I had no duties regarding AATIP, and that AATIP did not involve the study of UAPs,” Elizondo told the IG. “As a result, the bloggers began to disseminate reporting, accusing me of being a fabricator.”

Pentagon officials didn’t immediately return a request by The Epoch Times for comment.