Watergate, the JFK assassination and a UFO secret at the center of it all | Reality Check

The source presents Ross Coulthart’s discussion with Jonathan Caplan, whom Coulthart describes as a King’s Counsel and the author of the 2026 book Not For Disclosure: UFOs, the World’s Best Kept Secret.¹ Coulthart says Caplan has researched Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) for over 50 years.² Caplan recalls joining the board of Flying Saucer Review, and describes its role in his early engagement with ufology.³ The interview therefore establishes Caplan’s perspective as that of a long-term researcher, while also recording his own assessments rather than presenting them as independently verified findings.

A central section concerns Majestic 12 (MJ-12). Caplan concludes that MJ-12 existed and that its associated documents are genuine.⁴ Coulthart says the Truman Directive of 24 September 1947 was leaked around 1980, producing the body of material known as the MJ-12 documents, while noting that their provenance is officially disputed by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the United States military.⁵⁶ The discussion then links the material to the Blair House meeting of 14 July 1949: Coulthart highlights a reference to the president staying at Blair House while the White House was being rebuilt,⁷ and Caplan says he obtained a report concerning the meeting.⁸ In Caplan’s account of David Lilienthal’s diary, Harry S. Truman referred to a unique report and an agreement kept inaccessible.⁹ A newly found MJ-12 document is said to concern the meeting and Truman’s wish to share material with US allies.¹⁰

The final part connects these allegations to the 1972 Watergate burglary and the John F. Kennedy assassination. Caplan recounts E. Howard Hunt’s alleged explanation to his lawyer Douglas Caddy that the burglary involved documents relating to the assassination.¹¹ Coulthart presents the broader possibility that Watergate was intended to conceal access to UFO secrets.¹² The Lancer document is given particular importance: Coulthart says it describes action against John F. Kennedy as necessary to the continuation of MJ-12,¹³ while Caplan regards the document and a possible UFO-related connection to the assassination as requiring serious investigation.¹⁴ The source matters because it brings together disputed documents, alleged intelligence activity and historical events, while clearly presenting the principal conclusions as Coulthart’s or Caplan’s claims.