Luis Elizondo has become a central figure in the modern discourse surrounding Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) due to his alleged involvement with the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). His revelations and subsequent claims have been both groundbreaking and controversial, fueling numerous debates regarding the U.S. government’s engagement with UAPs.
In an unprecedented revelation, The Black Vault was the first to report that the Department of Defense (DoD) had destroyed Elizondo’s emails, a move that surprised many and intensified the scrutiny surrounding the government’s handling of this sensitive subject. It also hindered efforts to verify many of Elizondo’s claims, with the use of what would likely reside in these emails. Therefore, this presented a significant barrier to the standard Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process while investigating his claims.
Yet, where one door closed, another opened.
Recognizing that communication is a two-way process, The Black Vault initiated a strategic approach. By targeting FOIA requests on the email archives of DoD personnel who had likely corresponded with Elizondo, it was possible to indirectly recover portions of Elizondo’s email exchanges. This indirect method, albeit unorthodox, proved to be a way to shed light on conversations that would have otherwise remained obscured.
The archive below, which is still being added to due to the fact that numerous FOIA requests are still open, is a collection of emails offering a glimpse into the world of Luis Elizondo and his interactions within the Department of Defense. In addition, it also logs those that may have communicated with Elizondo, but according to the FOIA final response, ‘no records’ were found. That is archived here as the inability to find records can be used to fact check claims in the past made.
Document Archive
| Records Released Archive: |
 Name Withheld [10 Pages, 1MB] – The Black Vault has opted to keep the identity of this particular person anonymous. The name, discovered by The Black Vault, was one that the DoD aimed to not reveal in the FOIA release, and the DoD opted to remove the name in their FOIA case logs that referenced The Black Vault’s request. As a courtesy, and in the interest in privacy, the name is withheld. However, the documents are here for research and reference. This person was likely a subordinate who, as you can see from the emails, did various tasks for Elizondo. Notably, this was the person that got DOPSR’s email address that Elizondo utilized to coordinate a review of the FLIR, Gimbal and GoFast videos for use in an internal DoD database. |
 Marcel Lettre [3 Pages, 1MB] – Marcel Lettre served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) from December 2015 to January 2017. In this role, he was the principal intelligence advisor to the Secretary of Defense. Lettre’s tenure at the DoD intersected with the time frame during which Luis Elizondo claims he was involved with the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). Given the overlapping periods of their service, a request was filed for communications. |
| “No Records” or Other Records Destroyed Archive: |
 James Clapper [3 Pages, 1MB] – James Clapper served as the U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) from 2010 to 2017, overseeing the country’s 17 intelligence agencies. Before his tenure as DNI, Clapper held various key positions within the U.S. intelligence community, including the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) from 1992 to 1995 and the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence from 2007 to 2010. During Clapper’s time in the Department of Defense (DoD), particularly his stint as the Undersecretary, Luis Elizondo was also affiliated with the DoD, so their paths in the sprawling DoD apparatus may have intersected. A FOIA request which had combined a few names did not yield communications between Elizondo and Clapper. However, above, you will see the release relating to Marcel Lettre, which was in the same combined request as this one. |
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A request was filed, but it was determined through the processing of the FOIA case that Sanders’ emails were destroyed after he left the DoD in 2017. Therefore, a “no records” determination was given.  |
 Patrick Shanahan – Patrick Shanahan served as the 33rd Deputy Secretary of Defense from July 2017 until January 2019 and then as the Acting Secretary of Defense from January 2019 to June 2019. Prior to his time in the Pentagon, Shanahan had a distinguished career at Boeing. During his tenure at the Department of Defense (DoD), Luis Elizondo claimed to have headed the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) until he resigned from the DoD in 2017. Given their overlapping time at the Pentagon and the significant attention AATIP and related UAP issues have received, it’s plausible that Shanahan and Elizondo may have had some level of interaction or awareness of each other’s work, however, FOIA case 20-F-0049 showed “no records” were found in regards to communications. |
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