The report — which came in classified and unclassified formats, with the latter now available to the public online — claims that the office found 'no verifiable evidence that any UAP [i.e. UFO] sighting has represented extraterrestrial activity.'

The UFO office, which did not enjoy subpoena power for its inquiries, reported that c-suite executives at US defense contractors 'denied the existence' of any top secret UFO crash retrieval programs 'on the record.'

But it did reveal at least one proposed top secret project, dubbed 'Kona Blue,' reviewed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the 2010s, and pitched as an effort to reverse-engineer hypothetically recovered extraterrestrial spacecraft. 

Tim Phillips, acting director of the Pentagon's UFO-hunting All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), told reporters that his office's new report casts doubt on the public testimony of UFO whistleblower and ex-US intel officer David Grusch. 

'AARO has found no verifiable evidence that the US government or private industry has ever had access to extraterrestrial technology,' Phillips told select reporters in a closed setting.

But in the past week, the exclusive, invite-only nature of the report's pre-release has been criticized by other journalists and UFO researchers for its lack of transparency.

'They've pledged openness and transparency to Congress on the subject of UAPs, but they're not following through on their actions,' said NewsNation correspondent Ross Coulthart, who secured the first televised interview with Grusch last summer.