John Herrington denies Brent Friedman's 1981 account

Brent Friedman says Reagan official John Herrington told him in 1981 that aliens are real; Herrington denies it. The full American Alchemy transcript (October 2026) shows Herrington understating his own 1981 rank, contradicting his earlier denial about the car drive, confirming that Grusch sought him out, and offering to testify in closed session.

On the record

• Correction to the lead: this is John S. Herrington, Reagan's Secretary of Energy (1985–89), not the astronaut John B. Herrington (born 1958, Chickasaw Nation, NASA 1996).
• The denial interview is on Jesse Michels's YouTube channel ("Secretary Of Energy Breaks Silence on UFOs"); the full transcript is now in the project (research/transcripts/american-alchemy-2026-10-john-herrington.md).
• Herrington was Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Presidential Personnel, January to September 1981 (White House nomination biography, 1985), not 'a peon'.
• Already in the DB: listed as an unchecked lead in document/probed-review only.