UFO whistleblower David Grusch has claimed that former Vice President Dick Cheney oversaw a program involving live aliens captured from crashed UFOs.
Grusch, 42, made the allegations Thursday during an interview on “The Dr. Phil Podcast,” saying US officials had communicated telepathically with alien “pilots” pulled from some of the dozens of UFOs he believes are in the government’s possession. The former Air Force intelligence officer, who testified before Congress in 2023 about alleged secret UFO crash-retrieval programs, said the detainment operation was handled for Cheney, who died Nov. 3, at 84.
“I know people who had direct interactions in a detainment situation, which sounds very Star Trek and sounds very crazy, but it is true,” Grusch said on the podcast.
“I spoke to a former cabinet member who directly worked the issue for a particular former vice president. You can guess which one. Darth Vader,” Grusch added with a laugh.
Cheney, who served as vice president under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009, was famously nicknamed “Darth Vader” by critics because of his reputation as one of the administration’s most powerful figures. Grusch did not name the former cabinet member he claimed to have spoken with, nor did he specify when the alleged detainment program operated.
Grusch then described the way the aliens and humans were able to communicate.
“It is true that it is some sort of consciousness communication. Of course, people call it telepathy. I cannot begin to tell you how it works. But there is some sort of communication like that,” he said.
“I’m as curious as the average viewer on your show on how that works,” Grusch continued.
Dr. Phil McGraw, the famed TV psychologist, has recently become a prominent television interviewer of figures involved in the UFO disclosure debate. He has been granted early access to the last two tranches of UFO files released by the Trump administration, and has been briefing his audience on the releases since July 14.
“David’s story is absolutely a reminder that asking hard questions and getting to the truth is every citizen’s right,” Dr. Phil said after the interview.
“You may believe there’s something there. You may believe we’re alone. You may believe we’re not. But you have a right to have information and think critically about it. And you have the right to decide what it means to you; whether its significant to you and your belief systems or not,” he said.
In the viral moment that made Grusch a central figure in the UFO disclosure movement, he testified under oath before a House Oversight subcommittee on July 26, 2023, that the US government was operating a “multi-decade” program to collect and reverse-engineer crashed unidentified aerial phenomena. He told lawmakers he was informed of the program through his official duties but was denied access to additional information, and he claimed the government had recovered “non-human biologics” from crashed craft. The Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office later released a report in March 2024 formally disputing Grusch’s claims and concluding there was no verified evidence of off-world craft or recovered remains.
Grusch served 14 years in the Air Force and held senior positions at the National Reconnaissance Office and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency before departing government service in April 2023. His whistleblower complaint filed in May 2022 with the Intelligence Community Inspector General was deemed “credible and urgent.”
Grusch is currently serving as a Special Advisor to Congressman Eric Burlison, a Missouri Republican who has pushed for declassification of UAP records and immunity for witnesses willing to testify about alleged government programs.
The Dr. Phil Podcast interview marks Grusch’s most specific public claims to date about alleged direct human-alien interaction and named a specific former government official as having overseen such a program.