There is no threat from Iran to the U.S. homeland, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday in response to a report by ABC that the FBI warned California police departments about the possibility of an Iranian drone threat.
“This post and story should be immediately retracted by ABC News for providing false information to intentionally alarm the American people,” Leavitt wrote on social media. “They wrote this based on one email that was sent to local law enforcement in California about a single, unverified tip.
“The email even states the tip was based on `unverified’ intelligence. Yet ABC News left out this critical fact in their story! WHY?
“TO BE CLEAR: No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did.”
ABC reported Wednesday that it “recently acquired information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran,” citing an FBI alert.
“We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack,” the alert said.
Rep. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, said he discussed the potential threat with Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes.
“I asked him how did you find out about this Iranian threat and how do we prepare, and he said, `I found out about the news… through second and third sources,’ ” Correa said in a virtual news conference on Thursday.