High-ranking US government officials have “first-hand knowledge” of a secret Pentagon crash retrieval program for UFOs, Sen. Marco Rubio has claimed.

Rubio (R-Fla.), who serves as vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told NewsNation Monday that “serious” whistleblowers — who “have held very high clearances and high positions within our government” — have come forward to the panel about several incidents in recent years.

“Some of these people still work in the government,” the 52-year-old Rubio told the outlet. “And frankly, a lot of them are very fearful, fearful of their jobs, fearful [of] their clearances, fearful of their career, and some, frankly, are fearful of harm coming to them.”

Rubio declined to say whether he found the whistleblowers “either not credible or credible, because we have no basis” to judge their stories.

“Understand, some of these claims are things that are beyond, sort of the realm of what any of us has ever dealt with,” he added.

Rubio’s comments bolster the testimony of an Air Force veteran and former intelligence official who recently told Congress he had “proof” that the US government had been covertly storing extraterrestrial aircraft for decades.

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