[3][12] Elizondo has reported that he worked with officials from the U.S. Navy and the CIA out of his Pentagon office for this program until 2017, when he resigned to protest what he characterized as "excessive secrecy and internal opposition".

[17][18][19][16] Elizondo told a reporter he thought that he might have been selected for AATIP because of his scientific background, work as a counterintelligence agent protecting American aerospace technology, and lack of interest in science fiction.

[1][12] Soon after resigning from the government, Elizondo joined To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences (TTSA), a public-benefit corporation co-founded by musician Tom DeLonge, CIA veteran Jim Semivan, and parapsychologist Hal Puthoff to research UFO-related topics.

[23][28] In 2020, Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough told Popular Mechanics that "The videos were not cleared for general public release because DOPSR did not receive final approval from Navy.

[5][29] A History Channel series titled Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation, produced by TTSA, featured Elizondo and others who present themselves as affiliated with AATIP.

[30][31][32][33] Elizondo, along with Christopher Mellon, left TTSA in late 2020, saying "Tom [De Longe] is really focused on the entertainment side, so there's not a whole lot for Chris [...] and I to do [...] Our talents lie in engaging governments, Congress and international organizations, and we're ready to shift into second gear.

"[7] In the summer of 2021 Elizondo appeared on the CBS News program 60 Minutes in a segment titled "UFOs regularly spotted in restricted U.S. airspace" in which he was interviewed by Bill Whitaker.

[36][5] In 2023, journalist Art Levine reported that both Elizondo and Mellon had lobbied in support of the National Defense Authorization Act, which included a provision to investigate UFO-related topics and to create the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.

Levine noted that Elizondo had "become a lightning rod for a dangerous new rage that is overtaking some conspiracy-oriented UFO believers and influencers, who are demanding “disclosure now” by the government about its purported encounters with aliens".

[37] In the book, Elizondo claims that late in his military and intelligence career, he was recruited by Pentagon officials to manage security and counterintelligence for a deeply classified UFO-related research program, subsequently embracing ufology.