Leavitt blasts ABC News' 'false' Iran drone story: 'Should be immediately retracted'

WASHINGTON, DC: The White House on Thursday, March 12, pushed back against a report that the FBI had warned California law enforcement agencies about a potential Iranian retaliation attack on US soil. 

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the report misrepresented intelligence information and insisted that there was no confirmed threat to the United States.

The response came after a media report cited an FBI alert referencing unverified intelligence suggesting that Iran had considered launching a drone strike from a vessel off the US coast. 

White House says report mischaracterized intelligence warning

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized a report that suggested federal authorities had warned California police departments about a possible Iranian retaliation attack tied to the US military campaign.

Posting on the social platform X, Leavitt rejected the report’s characterization of the intelligence and said that there was no confirmed threat to the United States. “No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did,” Leavitt wrote.

She argued the report relied on incomplete information and called on the news outlet to retract the story. “This post and story should be immediately retracted by ABC News for providing false information to intentionally alarm the American people,” Leavitt said.

According to the press secretary, the reporting was based on a single email sent to local law enforcement agencies referencing an unverified intelligence tip.

“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?” she wrote.

The network had reported that federal authorities had warned police departments that Iran might retaliate for the US military campaign by deploying drones toward the West Coast. 

An FBI spokesperson later posted what he described as the original alert that had been sent to Joint T*******m Task Force partners, emphasizing that the information referenced in the message was unverified.

President Donald Trump also addressed the issue on Wednesday, saying that he had been briefed on potential Iranian sleeper cells in the country.

“A lot of people came in through [former President] Biden with his stupid open border,” Trump told reporters. “But we know where most of them are. We’ve got our eye on all of them, I think.”

FBI bulletin cited possible drone strike scenario tied to Iran

According to the alert reviewed by journalists, federal authorities received information suggesting that, as of early February 2026, Iran had expressed interest in carrying out a surprise strike using unmanned aerial vehicles.

The intelligence warning stated that the drones could potentially be launched from an unidentified vessel positioned off the US coast.

“We recently acquired information that as of early February 2026, Iran had 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 US conducted strikes against Iran,” the alert stated.

The message emphasized that investigators had not confirmed any operational details connected to the alleged plan.

“We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack,” the bulletin noted.