David Grusch put biology on the Capitol steps

"Sentient plasmoid life" was the breakout phrase from the June 9 Capitol press conference.

David Grusch was asked how many non-human species he was aware of. He did not give a number. He said he did not have a compendium, then described a range from corporeal bipedal life to what he called "sentient plasmoid life." He said there were several the U.S. government knew of.

That was the clip-ready answer. Around it sat a press conference about records, immunity, biology, and agencies Congress says are still holding material back.

Members of Congress said they want immunity for people who know locations of craft or advanced technologies. Grusch accused political appointees and the Defense Intelligence Agency of blocking records. Leslie Kean shifted the podium from hardware to biology. Lawmakers framed UAP disclosure as a fight over oversight, money, and secrecy.

Outside the Capitol

The event was staged outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, June 9, 2026. C-SPAN listed it as "Rep. Burlison and Others on UAP Declassification." Reuters streamed the news conference as lawmakers and a whistleblower calling for the release of UFO records.

The speakers included Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, Rep. Eric Burlison, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, Rep. Tim Burchett, Leslie Kean, James Fox, and Grusch. The public framing had been set in late May by a press release promising a bipartisan push for the UAP Disclosure Act, whistleblower protection, and declassification of specific records.

That earlier notice said Grusch would discuss evidence he encountered in classified channels and explain why those records should be reviewed for public release. On June 9, he did not bring files to the podium. He brought allegations about who is still blocking them.

Kean moved toward biology

Leslie Kean's remarks moved the event toward the most sensitive part of Grusch's original claim.

She reminded the crowd that Grusch had testified under penalty of perjury in 2023 and had used the phrase non-human biologics. Then she said the conversation should shift toward biology rather than only technology. Her distinction was narrow and sharp: advanced non-human technology can raise legitimate national security questions; biological evidence sits in a different category. The existence of another studied life form, she argued, should not belong to a military or government alone.

Kean also pointed to Kirk McConnell, a longtime congressional intelligence and defense staff figure who was present at the event. She said he had been in classified settings when sources briefed senators, including Marco Rubio, about recovered non-human bodies.

No biological evidence appeared at the podium. Kean was describing briefings, sources, and the category Grusch had already put into the record: biologics.

Grusch named the obstruction

Grusch directed his sharpest prepared criticism at political appointees and the Defense Intelligence Agency. He said members of the president's team had been kept in the dark through incompetence and malicious intent. He said some foreign intelligence had not been provided to Congress despite lawful requests to DIA. He said the agency should stop obstructing Luna's task force and provide the documents to Congress, then put them through mandatory declassification review.

Records to Congress. Then review for public release.

Grusch also framed the issue as classification abuse. He referred to Executive Order 13526 and said classification cannot lawfully be used to hide embarrassment, funds, criminal activity, or basic scientific information about the universe. He described his own ongoing federal litigation with the Department of War and said he learned that the Air Force had worked with an external agency to seek an investigation of him for alleged unauthorized disclosures after his 2023 congressional testimony.

His sharpest prepared line was not about species. Disclosure, Grusch said, should not depend on leaks or on the public taking his word for it.

The event produced statements. It did not produce the files.

Luna and Burlison pushed immunity

Luna described the House task force on declassification of federal secrets and said UAP-related legislation had been blocked by intelligence agencies and House staff. She said lawmakers were seeking temporary or permanent immunity for whistleblowers who could verify locations of craft or advanced technologies.

At the end of the event, Luna added that a White House meeting was set up and said the administration was willing to entertain permanent immunity so people would not face Espionage Act exposure. Her closing version was practical: many people may have information; the question is what can be proven and brought forward.

Burlison made the same immunity ask in louder language. He called on President Trump to waive nondisclosure agreements and grant immunity to people who had come forward or would come forward. He described named whistleblowers as people whose careers and families had been damaged because they believed information belonged to the public.

That immunity frame also sits behind the Project Rubik’s Cube exchange with Dylan Borland: a public question, a protected-setting answer, and no public file yet.

Burlison also widened the target list. He mentioned Russian and Brazilian records, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, MITRE, Matthew Sullivan, the MQ-9 Yemen footage, recovered craft and reverse-engineering claims, specific facilities, contractors, records, and people.

The list is broad. It becomes checkable only when lawmakers attach records, dates, offices, or custodians.

The Varginha hook came back

James Fox opened the event with Varginha, the 1996 Brazilian case he has pursued for years. He said the case involved firsthand reports of UAP and direct contact with living intelligent non-human beings, and he asked President Trump to declassify and release files related to that case and others like it.

Burlison later said lawmakers had reviewed Brazilian records, including what he described as a formal FBI inquiry into the Varginha incident. He also said former Brazilian Defense Minister Aldo Rebelo had acknowledged the case and suggested Brazil could disclose if the United States did.

Varginha gave the press conference a specific case name. The claim is dramatic. The public file is not on the table.

Pentagon money and oversight

Jared Moskowitz gave the event its cleanest political slogan: "Disclosure today, disclosure tomorrow." He put the subject in two lanes at once: what the government knows, and where Pentagon money goes.

He pointed to advanced technology programs and missing Pentagon funds, then asked where that money goes. In his framing, the UAP issue is also an oversight problem: whether Congress can see what it is supposed to oversee.

The staging put a Democrat and Republicans behind the same records-and-money question in front of cameras.

Contractors as the roadblock

Burchett's strongest answer came during the Q&A, when he was asked what prevents lawmakers from visiting locations tied to reverse engineering or related claims.

His answer was not Area 51. He joked that a congressional trip there would produce a T-shirt. The roadblock, he said, is that material has been moved into private entities where ordinary federal records tools do not reach. He also described staff efforts to block the original Grusch hearing in 2023 and said a sitting member of Congress had tried to disrupt a classified meeting with Grusch.

If records, materials, or program work sit behind contractor walls, Congress needs more than a site visit and a camera crew.

The plasmoid answer

The species answer gives the article its public hook. It does not give the public much to inspect.

The sentence is specific enough to travel and vague enough to resist verification. It does not name a source document. It does not name a program. It does not identify a scientist, specimen, facility, chain of custody, or report title. It is strong as a public claim. It is not public evidence.

The same Q&A produced a second Grusch detail. Asked about Immaculate Constellation, he said he could not comment on the program's contents, repeated that he had discussed it in a Judicial Watch interview, and described it as a National Security Council program whose secrecy infrastructure began in 1954 through an Eisenhower executive order.

The answer pointed back to his recent Immaculate Constellation framing: do not look only for a neat DoD program name; look at older authorities, custody, and records.

The official baseline remains

The official baseline did not move with the podium.

AARO's 2024 historical review said it found no verifiable evidence that the U.S. government or private industry had access to extraterrestrial technology, and no indications that information had been illegally or inappropriately withheld from Congress. AARO's public site continues to say the Department has found no evidence of extraterrestrial technology, while investigations continue.

The June 9 speakers are saying that baseline is incomplete because the right records, witnesses, and custodians have not been forced into the open.

The press conference gave the movement several lines that will travel: biology over hardware, whistleblower immunity, contractor roadblocks, DIA obstruction, Varginha, several life forms, and sentient plasmoid life.

The next test is a file name, a custodian, a subpoena return, a declassification review, a witness with immunity, a record that can leave the room.

Related notes

• June 9 puts the UAP file push on the Capitol steps
• David Grusch and the Immaculate Constellation gap
• Project Rubik’s Cube, Corbell, and Borland’s SCIF answer
• Corbell says he has seen the Sleeping Dog biologics folder
• The Hellfire missile and the Yemen orb
• AARO contractor personnel now have a UAP reporting channel

Sources

• Reuters: "LIVE: Lawmakers, whistleblower call for release of UFO records," June 9, 2026.
• C-SPAN: "Rep. Burlison and Others on UAP Declassification," June 9, 2026.
• The Independent: "US government aware of several kinds of alien life, whistleblower claims," June 9, 2026.
• PR Newswire: event announcement, May 28, 2026.
• Department of Defense: AARO historical report briefing, March 2024.
• AARO public site and FAQ.