On February 24, 2026 — five days after President Trump directed all federal agencies to begin identifying and releasing UAP files — the U.S. Navy’s Office of the Judge Advocate General denied a FOIA appeal for 78 classified UAP photographs, ruling they remain withheld in full under national security exemptions.
The denial letter, obtained by The Black Vault’s John Greenewald Jr., is a three-page government document that makes the contradiction explicit: the Commander-in-Chief ordered transparency, and the Navy’s legal office denied it anyway — citing Executive Order 13526 and classifying the photographs as related to “military plans, weapons systems, or operations.”
The Timeline
- September 8, 2022 — Greenewald files FOIA request to Chief of Naval Operations for all Navy UAP photographs
- November 13, 2024 — Initial denial: 78 photographs withheld in full under FOIA Exemption (b)(1)
- November 14, 2025 — Greenewald files formal FOIA appeal
- February 19, 2026 — Trump directs Pentagon and agencies to begin releasing UAP files
- February 24, 2026 — Navy JAG denies appeal. 78 photographs remain classified.
The Denial Letter Verbatim
The Office of the Judge Advocate General stated directly: “The IDA confirmed that as of today, these records are still classified in accordance with Executive Order 13526. Furthermore, given the nature of the requested documents, segregation was not possible.”
The letter invokes a legal standard that grants federal agencies “wide deference” when classifying records, requiring “little proof or explanation beyond a plausible assertion that information is properly classified.” In other words: the Navy does not have to explain why these specific photos are classified. They only have to assert it.
The denial also explicitly rejected Greenewald’s request for a Vaughn index — a document that would list each withheld record and justify each individual withholding. The Navy called this “clearly inapplicable” to a FOIA appeal.
The Oracle Assessment
The Pentagon launched PURSUE on May 8, 2026, releasing 161 files described as “never-before-seen.” The Navy’s JAG office denied the appeal on February 24 — within days of the Trump directive that directly ordered this kind of release.
This is the bureaucratic immune system in action. The PURSUE release is real and significant. But the same week Trump ordered transparency, one branch of the military’s legal apparatus quietly ruled that 78 photographs of UAP incidents will not be released — because “segregation was not possible.”
78 photographs. Each one classified. Each one withheld with no itemised justification. Each one categorised alongside “military plans and weapons systems.”
If these were balloons and sensor artifacts, they would not be classified as weapons systems. Watch whether PURSUE’s rolling tranches eventually include Navy UAP photographic evidence. If they do not, the gap between the Trump directive and Navy compliance will widen into something that requires Congressional intervention to close.
Source: The Black Vault, John Greenewald Jr. FOIA appeal 2026-NavyAPPEAL-000123, February 24, 2026.