Interesting to note that the NYT article (linked below and in a few places in the comments here) was amended a few hours after being posted. It originally made a strong claim that Harry Reid said that crashes had occurred and materials were possessed. Instead, it was revised to say:

> An earlier version of this article inaccurately rendered remarks attributed to Harry Reid, the retired Senate majority leader from Nevada. Mr. Reid said he believed that crashes of objects of unknown origin may have occurred and that retrieved materials should be studied; he did not say that crashes had occurred and that retrieved materials had been studied secretly for decades.

This is pure speculation but Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean seem to be the main NYT staff members reporting on this topic and they have proven to be detail-oriented enough and rather limited in their speculation. I wonder if they truly 'misreported' this or if instead the article was asked to be amended because of security reasons.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us/politics/pentagon-ufo-...