A former U.S. congressman once expected to become the nation’s top law enforcement official claims he was briefed on a secret program involving aliens and abducted humans by a serving member of the military, a claim he says was made to him personally while he was in office.Matt Gaetz, who was nominated by Donald Trump to be attorney general in 2024 but withdrew after being accused of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, made the comments during a hearing on March 31. He has denied the accusations and has not been charged. appeared on the benny showhosted by noted right-wing influencer Benny Johnson.
Gates says what he was told
Gates said the interaction took place in his office in Crestview, Florida, and described it as a direct briefing by a uniformed member of the U.S. Army in an environment he described as unclassified, but that members of his staff were also present. He said a “high-ranking soldier” provided him with information about “the location of the hybrid breeding program” and described a system in which, in his words, “captured aliens are being bred with humans to create some hybrid race capable of interstellar communication.” According to Gates, the same person told him that the human actors involved in the alleged program were taken from “war zones” and “even migrant caravans,” and that the activities were not limited to one location. He said he was told there were “six to 12 locations across the country where this was happening,” and that those who briefed him wanted Congress to intervene, specifically to coordinate lawmakers’ visits to the locations so that any alleged actions were not diverted or concealed. That step never materialized, Gates said. He said it would be physically impossible “to have members of Congress” in multiple locations at the same time, so no such effort was undertaken. He also made it clear that he had not verified the claims made to him.Also read: US congressman says what he knows about UFO secrets could keep Americans “up at night” and “disconnect the country”
political and personal background
Gates’ comments come amid a political career that has been both illustrious and controversial. He was nominated to serve as attorney general under Trump in November 2024, a position that would make him head of the Justice Department. He later withdrew from consideration as allegations involving minors came under increasing scrutiny. Gates has denied any wrongdoing and no criminal charges have been filed against him. He has also recently distanced himself at times from elements of the Trump administration’s foreign policy, including criticism of conflicts involving Iran. Speaking at CPAC, he warned that sending in ground troops would make the United States “poorer and less safe” and said he was “not sure we’re going to end up killing more terrorists than we create.”
How to receive a claim
This interview quickly circulated on the Internet, causing most people to question it. On Some responses focused on the lack of supporting evidence. One user wrote: “Extraordinary claim with zero credible evidence and no verified reports to support this so it should be considered unsubstantiated and highly suspect.” While another commented: “Aliens breeding with humans…somehow people are taking this seriously in 2026?” Some reactions referenced Gates’ previous political affiliations. “This guy is so close to becoming the Attorney General of the United States,” one user wrote. Another added: “How did you go from rising star in Congress to podcasting conspiracy theorist so quickly?” Others compared him to famous conspiracy figures. “Is he trying to outdo the caricature of Alex Jones?” one user asked, while another wrote: “This is probably the dumbest conspiracy theory I’ve ever heard so far and I’m a conspiracy theorist.”
What is confirmed and what is not confirmed
Gates based his account largely on what he said he was told during that meeting. He did not provide documents, names, locations or any independent evidence to support the existence of such a scheme and admitted that he had not personally verified the information.No U.S. military or government agency has confirmed the existence of any program involving aliens interbreeding with humans or abducting civilians for that purpose. Publicly acknowledged investigations into unidentified aerial phenomena have documented unexplained sightings but have yet to establish evidence of alien involvement.The only apparent public support for Gates’s claims came from Dr. Steven Greer, a retired emergency physician turned UFO researcher, who responded to the remarks on the same show on April 4. “We’ve captured these bodies, some alive, some dead,” Greer said, adding, “The military has some horrific plans going on, and they’ve been trying to combine the DNA of these creatures with humans, and they’ve come up with these weird-looking things that they’re using to kidnap people.“He further claimed that “the alien abductions that everyone hears about are not the work of aliens. It is a secret human program. We know it and we can prove it,” describing the issue as “the biggest scandal in American history.”Greer also claimed that a secretive, unsupervised group reverse-engineered alien craft and that there was a massive cover-up surrounding such technology. He is best known for founding the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) and the Disclosure Project, and has long advocated the disclosure of classified information about UFOs and extraterrestrial contacts.His claims have received both support and harsh criticism over the years and, like Gates’s, have not been independently verified or corroborated by any official evidence.At this time, these claims remain unsubstantiated and are based on claims that have not been confirmed by government agencies or the wider scientific community.
