The FBI has handed over its first batch of classified UFO documents to a Pentagon-led inter-agency committee for public release, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed on 6 May, but a growing gap between official promises and bureaucratic follow-through is raising questions about what Americans will actually see and when.

Patel made the disclosure on the Hang Out with Sean Hannity podcast, telling the Fox News host that the Trump administration's inter-agency process is well underway. He said the Department of War, led by Secretary Pete Hegseth, is directing the effort across all intelligence agencies.

'We already delivered our first tranche of information to that committee and they're going to be publicly releasing this information very soon,' Patel said. 'The American public wants the documents. We've already delivered the documents. They're coming out. That's it.'

The comments follow President Donald Trump's February 2026 executive order directing federal agencies to release records on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) and extraterrestrial matters. Trump himself teased the coming release at a Turning Point USA event in Arizona last month, saying the government had found 'many very interesting documents.'

President Trump activates the first phase of Project Blue Beam for the public by announcing that he will immediately release files on the existence of alien life.“This process is well underway, and we’ve found many very interesting documents, I must say.”pic.twitter.com/yOofNCYbBs

But the administration's track record on delivery doesn't fully match the rhetoric. On 31 March, Representative Anna Paulina Luna, chairwoman of the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, sent a letter to Hegseth ordering the Pentagon to hand over 46 specific UAP video clips by 14 April 2026. That deadline passed with no public confirmation that the videos were ever delivered.

REF UAP DEADLINE:No one from the Pentagon had responded until we reached out, and it appears that someone did not pass the letter to the appropriate authorities. How convenient. Nonetheless, we will be getting the requested list. We are not waiting for a briefing at some…

On the same day Patel made his podcast appearance, UFO whistleblower David Grusch warned that forces within the government are 'still working to cover up the files before their release.' Grusch, a former Air Force intelligence officer and now an adviser to Congressman Eric Burlison, said he believeddisclosure would reach a tipping pointwithin the next 60 to 90 days. He also noted that the real focus should be on physical materials rather than videos.

"I do have confidence that [Disclosure] is going to escalate in the next 60-90 days. And I think there is going to be a lot of pressure..." -- David Grusch, May 5, 2026pic.twitter.com/WSpdiVLRAu

'I certainly know what Congress is doing, and I won't reveal that here, but I do see a lot of pressure to get the substantive empirical holdings that I've talked about out in the ether,' Grusch said.

Source: International Business Times UK