U.S. national security officials tried to allay concerns about mysterious drones flying over the Northeast in a recent call with reporters. One person even went so far as to describe the nationwide alarm as “a slight overreaction.”

The call, which Fox News Digital participated in on Saturday, was hosted by senior Biden administration officials, including representatives from the FBI, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), National Security Council (NSC), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Defense (DOD).

Senior officials remained tight-lipped about the origins of the drones, which are still being investigated. The mysterious planes were first spotted over northern New Jersey in mid-November and have been seen repeatedly by thousands of residents in recent weeks.

While on the phone with reporters, an FBI official said his agency has received 5,000 tips since the first mysterious drone was seen flying over the Garden State in November. Of those 5,000 tips, fewer than 100 warranted further investigation, the official said.

AFTER MORE THAN 20 DAYS, PENTAGON STILL HAVE NO ANSWERS TO THE ORIGIN OF THE MYSTERIOUS NJ DRONES

In this image from a video provided by MartyA45_, several drones appear to fly over Randolph, New Jersey on December 4th. (MartyA45_ /TMX via AP, file)

The FBI official added that despite the recent surge in drone activity in recent weeks, investigators have found no evidence of large-scale unmanned drone activity.

“We are doing our best to find out the origin of this specific… this drone activity,” the official said. “But I think there was a slight overreaction.”

A DHS official echoed the FBI representative’s comments, noting that while his agency did not dismiss all of the drone leads as unreliable, “the level of actual drone activity is likely less than what is being reported.”

A Defense Department official added that the agency “did not collect any information or observations that would indicate that (the drones) were targeted at a foreign actor or that they had malicious intent.”

“But, just to put it to you, we don’t know,” the representative said. “We were unable to locate or identify the operators or places of origin.”

DRONE SECRET: NEW JERSEY HOMEOWNERS are threatening to take matters into their own hands if the government doesn’t act

New Jersey State Rep. Paul Kanitra took a photo of what appeared to be several drones hovering in the New Jersey sky. (Paul Kanitra/Fox News @ Night)

The Pentagon official added that there are limitations to investigating the sources of the drones.

“In addition, we are significantly restricted here in our home country and rightly even excluded from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance work,” the spokesman noted. “So we don’t have the same skills and the same methods that we would use in other places outside of the homeland to determine places of origin.”

“Here, on the military side, we are equally frustrated by the irresponsibility of this activity,” the official acknowledged.

An NSC official echoed the DOD representative’s opinion, arguing there was no evidence that foreign adversaries were involved in the drones and there was no evidence of a threat to public safety.

Map showing some of the locations where mysterious drones were spotted in December 2024. (Fox News)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“Obviously we are taking this incredibly seriously at this point,” the NSC official said. “We have found no basis to believe that … there is criminal activity, that there is a threat to national security, that there is a particular threat to public safety, or that a malicious foreign actor is involved in these drones.”

Fox News’ Daniel Scully contributed to this report.