US Congressman Says Government Confirmed 'Alien Life' Exists Hours Before UFO Advocate Nick Pope's Death

US Congressman Tim Burchett has claimed that government officials confirmed to him that extraterrestrial life exists and has made contact with humans, with the revelation coming just hours before the death of Nick Pope, Britain's most prominent UFO disclosure advocate.

In an interview with TMZ, the Tennessee Republican, who sits on the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, said he had received briefings confirming both alien life forms and non-earthly machinery.

When asked directly whether a member of the US government had told him about 'a form of alien life and machinery which maybe brought this living creature here that interacted in some form with people,' Burchett replied: 'Yeah, they have. It's pretty wild.'

The congressman said he would be willing to take a polygraph test to prove he was telling the truth. 'I'm not going to lie to you. I'd take a lie detector...you wanna put me on a polygraph, I'll take it,' he said.

Burchett also recounted how a 'very high ranking naval official' had told him about an underwater craft 'big as a football field, moving at over 200 miles an hour.' He said the official's parting words were: 'Tim, they're real.'

Pope Dies as Disclosure Momentum Builds

The timing of Burchett's remarks proved bitterly poignant. Just hours later, Pope's wife, anthropologist Elizabeth Weiss, announced that the former UK Ministry of Defence official had died at their home in the United States. He was 60.

'My heart is breaking. Nick passed away this afternoon in our house,' Weiss wrote on social media. 'In the last weeks of his life, although he suffered, he managed to do some interviews from home. I was so lucky to have known and married Nick. He was a wonderful husband.'

Pope had announced in February that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 oesophageal cancer that had spread to his liver. Despite the prognosis, he continued giving interviews and advocating for UFO disclosure until his final weeks.

The Man Behind Britain's 'X-Files'

Pope spent 21 years as a civil servant at the Ministry of Defence. From 1991 to 1994, he ran what became known as the 'UFO desk' in Secretariat (Air Staff), where he investigated reports of unexplained aerial sightings to determine whether they posed any defence threat to the United Kingdom.

Because his tenure coincided with the peak of the hit TV show, the media frequently dubbed his office the real-life 'X-Files.' His review of high-profile cases, such as the 1980 Rendlesham Forest incident, often called 'Britain's Roswell', earned him the nickname 'real Fox Mulder'.

A Second Career in the Spotlight

After leaving the MoD in 2006, Pope built a prominent career as an author, journalist, and television commentator. He became a regular guest on the History Channel's 'Ancient Aliens', wrote opinion pieces for The New York Times and BBC News, and consulted on alien-themed films, television series, and video games.

He moved to the United States in 2012 and married Weiss, whom he playfully described as 'the real-life Agent Scully' to his Fox Mulder. She is a physical anthropologist known for her sceptical approach to scientific claims.

From his initial appointment to the MoD's UFO desk in 1991 to his final interviews in 2026, Pope's career in the field spanned over three decades.

A Movement Without Its Leading Voice

Pope's advocacy helped transform the conversation around unidentified aerial phenomena from fringe speculation to legitimate policy debate.

In February, President Donald Trump directed federal agencies to begin releasing UFO-related files, and the White House subsequently registered the domains aliens.gov and alien.gov.

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, established by the Pentagon in 2022, now serves as the US government's official hub for UAP analysis.

Pope is survived by his wife. Tributes from colleagues and supporters around the world have described him as a voice of credibility, professionalism, and persistence in a field that desperately needed all three.