Rep. Eric Burlison said he will explore whether intelligence witnesses to a 2025 UFO orb incident can testify before Congress.
The Missouri Republican told The Post that US intelligence officials who witnessed a bizarre parade of orange orbs near an undisclosed West Coast military base could potentially be called to public hearings. The encounter, which occurred during a mission in late 2025, involved multiple orange orbs flying alongside a helicopter as smaller objects swarmed in all directions against a mountain backdrop, according to an FBI report released by the Trump administration in May.
One witness from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is a career bureaucrat not known to the general public, Burlison said. Some witnesses have already met with congressional members behind closed doors, though they have not shared all video footage of the encounter, according to the congressman.
“There’s some people that are working for the agency that having them come forward publicly may expose other things,” Burlison said. “And so that’s a good place to explore and I’m happy to look into that to see if that’s a possibility.”
Avi Loeb, head of the Trump-created UAP Scientific Advisory Council, told The Post he has not seen any footage allegedly collected during the mission. The council has not met with any of the witnesses, though Loeb welcomed the chance to interview them.
“The only concern that the witnesses should have is about revealing classified information with relevance to national security. This would be restricted to human-made technologies,” Loeb said.
He continued: “Any information to do with technologies of a non-human origin is fully protected by the declassification directive from President Trump and the NDA-waiver issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Pentagon.”
“Separate from these protections from any legal repercussions, the significance of unraveling technologies of non-human origin supersedes any concerns that witnesses might have,” he added.
Loeb said he and other council members want to visit the site of the alleged encounter to investigate the objects themselves.
“If we are informed of the location and other details of this unusual encounter, we can go there and obtain high quality data. This could help us figure out the nature of the mysterious orbs,” he shared.
“Personally, I would love to facilitate any such revelation since it would constitute the biggest discovery ever made by humanity.”
The FBI report described one smaller “oval-shaped” orange, white, and yellow orb approaching the helicopter and splitting in two. The incident also included smaller objects that allegedly emerged from a giant “mothership” orb, according to the report.
Loeb’s council was established by Trump to apply scientific rigor to UAP investigations, yet its lack of access to both witnesses and footage highlights ongoing friction between military intelligence channels and civilian oversight bodies. The Harvard astronomer has long advocated for more aggressive data collection on anomalous aerial phenomena.
Burlison’s cautious approach to public testimony reflects broader congressional tensions between transparency demands and national security constraints. The closed-door meetings with some witnesses suggest select lawmakers have already received partial briefings, even as key visual evidence remains withheld.
The West Coast encounter joins a growing catalog of military UAP sightings that have drawn increasing legislative scrutiny, with both houses of Congress holding multiple hearings on unexplained aerial phenomena in recent years.
Loeb’s scientific advisory council has not yet been briefed on the location of the 2025 incident, limiting any prospective field investigation.