DoD/IG Emails on Luis Elizondo – A Small Puzzle Piece Revealed

Article originally published June 28, 2022. Updated on April 2, 2024

On June 28, 2022, The Black Vault received a FOIA response that had a small batch of records. It asked for a search of 8 email boxes, that contain the keyword “Elizondo.”

Those email boxes were:

1. Steven A. Stebbins, Acting Principal Deputy Inspector General and Chief of Staff
2. Kelly P. Mayo, Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations
3. James R. Ives, Deputy Inspector General Overseas Contingency Operations
4. Marguerite C. Garrison, Deputy Inspector General Administrative Investigations
5. Michael J. Roark, Deputy Inspector General for Evaluations
6. Troy M. Meyer, Acting Deputy Inspector General for Audit
7. Paul Hadjiyane, General Counsel to the Inspector General
8. Patrick W. Gookin, Director, DoD Hotline

The responsive documents are gone over in the video.

The video I feel not only shows the small puzzle piece revealed is, but also, the struggles of going over FOIA documents as they can completely reveal a new revelation the second or third time you go over them!

Document Archive

DoD/IG Emails on Luis Elizondo [35 Pages, 5MB]

UAP/AATIP Resignation Memo

Based on the above, I filed an additional FOIA request to dig in on the “UAP/AATIP Resignation Memo” email thread. There was only one additional back-and-forth received, which was not entirely interesting, but I have archived it here, for reference.

DoD/IG Emails on Luis Elizondo, Subject: “UAP/AATIP Resignation Memo” [35 Pages, 5MB]

Two Attachments Revealed

During the course of processing the top FOIA request above, a memo was revealed that had two attachments that were not included in the responsive records. Case DODOIG-2022-001027 was filed by The Black Vault to reveal what those attachments were. They were originally found in this document:

The FOIA response included the above email again, but the two attachments were forwarded out to other agencies. One agency, was named: Office of the Secretary of Defense and Joint Staff (OSD/JS). However, the other, was not.

This was the portion of that letter:

On April 2, 2024, one of the two attachments was released by OSD/JS, and as suspected, it was one of the memos written by Garry Reid regarding Elizondo’s claims that was passed on to the DoD/IG. That memo (and FOIA response letter), can be seen here:

Contrary to the previous release, the classification marking is now visible (prior it was entirely redacted). We now see Reid’s memo was classified TS/ORCON (ORCON is defined as ORiginator CONtrols dissemination and/or release of the document).

It should be noted that according to this release, the reason for the TS/ORCON designator was the TAB attachments, which included TAB A) Information paper on AATIP; TAB B) Elizondo’s FIRST resignation letter; and TAB C) Elizondo’s SECOND resignation letter.

However, the other agency that had an attachment referred to it is a mystery. On the same day the above was released, The Black Vault sent a letter back to DoD/IG, since the case has been out for more than a year and a half to whatever mystery agency the second attachment (“1Dec2010 Memo.pdf”) was forwarded to. The letter asked for what agency was tasked with the referral, and what the case number is.

This page will be updated if/when that comes in.

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UPDATE 9/20/2024

The following is the FOIA Case File for OSD/JS 22-F-1322. This shows the internal records generated while this request was processed.

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