A CONGRESSMAN has said the world is being lied to about UFOs as he called for the full disclosure of what the US really knows about the phenomena.
Rep. Tim Burchett - a long-term advocate for disclosure - said sensational claims by a new Pentagon whistleblower are just the tip of the iceberg.
And he challenged someone inside the defence department to come forward with hard evidence - such as a photo or video - to truly blow the lid off the "cover-up".
"Congress has been lied to, and the public have been lied," Burchett told The Sun Online.
"But we gotta have that one person who walks out with a tape or something."
He added: "I would tell any whistleblowers to come out, your country needs you."
The Tennessee Republican was speaking after the emergence of former intelligence officer David Charles Grusch.
Grusch made the extraordinary claim the US has wreckage from "non-human craft" and even "dead pilots".
His remarkable claims so far have not been backed up by hard evidence, but have sent a UFO shockwave through Washington DC.
UFOs are now more commonly referred to in official circles as UAP - Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP).
Burchett told The Sun Online that he has already been in contact with Grusch and personally finds him "credible".
"I salute him for his bravery," said the Congressman.
"But he has to point us in the direction of a craft, even though I believe he's under a great deal of scrutiny.
"He will be attacked from all sides and people will try to discredit him.
"I do worry it will keep others from coming out - but we just need more and more people coming forward - one after the other."
Rep. Burchett will be leading a Congressional investigation as the House Oversight Committee confirmed its planning a new hearing on the claims by Grusch.
And he said as the UFO discussions continue to develop in Washington more and more insiders are approaching him with their experiences and with information.
This cover-up is about as big as you can get
Rep. Tim Burchett
But the Congressman continued to urge caution as false information can easily "discredit the entire movement".
"This cover-up is about as big as you can get," he told The Sun Online.
He revealed he had discussions with people within the Trump Administration about further disclosure - saying the release of more information was "close".
Rep. Burchett said there are other Members of Congress - such as Matt Gaetz and Anna Paulina Luna - who want UFO disclosure.
Rep. Luna will be working with him as part of the probe ahead of the Oversight Committee.
And he said there are other Congressmen who have "confided" in him, but at this stage are too scared of the stigma to go public.
"For me, I just don't care - I just want it to come out," said Rep Burchett.
"We've got to put this thing to rest, just put it out and let the people decide.
"The information is all there - just give us the unredacted files and give us access to the people who know, like Grusch."
Rep Burchett said last year ahead of another hearing that he had been told that the US had crash wreckage from UFOs.
And his claim has now been backed by the testimony from Grusch.
Grusch - who was directly involved with the Pentagon's UFO office - stated in no uncertain terms that the US had been collecting and attempting to reverse engineer the material for "decades".
The 14-year veteran's claims came from interviews with "high-level intelligence officials" - and he filed a complaint alleging the information had been illegally withheld from Congress.
The Pentagon however insisted that the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) - the UFO team - did not have any "verifiable information" to "substantiate" claims by Grusch.
Grusch, 36, worked for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
He served as the NGA's representative to the Pentagon's UFO office - and later was the agency's co-lead on UFO analysis.
Grusch was backed by former colleagues who described his reputation as "beyond reproach" and other intelligence officials who corroborated his claim.
His extraordinary statements were also cleared for publication by the Pentagon as part of their security review process.
And he is making his claims after new protections were signed into law for UFO whistleblowers.
It comes as UFOs have become a major national security issue and political hot topic in Washington - with even Nasa holding a briefing on the once-fringe subject last week.
Defence chiefs have admitted there are things in the sky they cannot fully explain as former military personnel has come forward with their own experiences.
And now the claims from Grusch raise more questions about transparency in the US.
Sceptics however have pointed to a lack of accessible evidence to support Grusch's claims - which are the latest, but most explosive, after a string of other whistleblowers.
And the Pentagon's official UFO office continues to insist they have found no evidence of anything extraterrestrial.
Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of AARO, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that his agency had found "no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics".
And during a briefing with Nasa last week he said the majority of his team's 800 UFO reports were "mundane" and subject to "readily explainable sources".
Grusch's story was first reported by journalists Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean.
They are the same reporters who broke the famous "Black Money" story for the New York Times in 2017 which revealed the existence of the US's secret UFO probe and the infamous "Tic Tac" video.
It was the story that revealed US Navy encounters with mysterious objects - and kickstarted a renewed wave of discussions around UFOs in Washington, which culminated in the setting up of the new UFO probe known as AARO and a series of hearings held by Congress.