Automobiles pass a former postal and telegraph building, where Bank of America Corp. is leasing space for 400 workers, in Paris, France, on Wednesday April 10, 2019. (Photographer: Christophe Morin/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Two additional teenagers have been detained in what authorities in France are investigating as an attempted terrorist attack in which a third teenager allegedly tried to detonate an explosive device outside a Bank of America in Paris, according to a police source close to the investigation.
The incident occurred shortly before 3:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, according to police and the French Interior Ministry. Police were patrolling the street near where the Bank of America is located in the 8th arrondissement neighborhood, authorities said.
One suspect was arrested after he allegedly left two bottles of flammable liquid attached with adhesive tape and 650 grams of explosive powder, authorities said. The suspect was attempting to set fire to the device with a lighter, according to police.
Two suspects were detained on Sunday, a law enforcement source close to the investigation told ABC News. All three suspects, including one arrested at the scene on Saturday, are under the age of 18, according to the source.
The French Interior Ministry confirmed that two additional suspects were detained in the case.
One of the teenagers detained on Sunday is believed to have fled the scene of the thwarted alleged attack after being spotted across the street from the Bank of America building allegedly filming the incident, officials said.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez congratulated French police for thwarting the “violent” attack in Paris overnight Saturday, where the suspect attempted to set off the explosive outside the Bank of America building in the central part of the city.
The “swift intervention” of police prevented the attack, which Nuñez described as a “violent action of a terrorist nature” in a post on X.
“Vigilance remains at a very high level,” Nuñez wrote. “I commend all the security and intelligence forces fully mobilized under my authority in the current international context.”
The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office is leading in the investigation, Nuñez said.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, appears on ABC News’ “This Week” on March 29, 2026. (ABC News)
(WASHINGTON) — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise did not refute the possibility of American ground troops entering Iran when asked on Sunday, even as many in his party have voiced concerns about such a move.
“There are no boots on the ground today, but we’re having a lot of conversations about what could happen next,” Scalise told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “But I think most people, most civilized people, recognize a nuclear-armed Iran is not an option that any of us want.”
The war with Iran has now surpassed a month of fighting and some congressional Republicans — including Scalise’s Louisiana colleague Sen. John Kennedy — have said President Donald Trump would need to come to Congress to seek authorization for any ground troops in Iran. When asked by Karl if he agreed with that proposition, Scalise did not answer directly, but said that Trump had already done that.
“The president has already come to Congress,” Scalise said. “They’ve let all of the congressional leadership know in advance of the strikes, but they’ve also had briefings on Capitol Hill.”
He added, “I was at one of those classified briefings with Republicans and Democrats, and they took questions from everybody. There were a lot of questions from people on both sides.”
Trump never officially sought congressional authorization before the war with Iran began, but his administration alerted a select group of top lawmakers, known as the “Gang of Eight,” before the initial strikes. And while the president continues to call the operation a “war,” he has also said that he cannot call it a war because he did not seek authorization from Congress.
Scalise said that he would not answer whether there would be widespread support from Republicans for ground troops in Iran because it has not yet happened.
“We’re not at that point yet. Obviously you’re seeing troop movement and we’ve got a number of bases in that region, too, that have been there for a long time,” Scalise said. “So until that day comes, I’m not going to speculate, and you’re not going to see the president go negotiate this in public.”
In a separate interview on “This Week,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Congress should not allocate any more money “for an illegal war of choice.”
“[This is] a war that is now making us less, not more safe and has already cost American lives, is costing billions of dollars every day, oil and gas prices are going up,” Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said. “So the president who said he was going to focus on bringing down prices and ending foreign wars has started foreign wars along with Prime Minister Netanyahu and prices are going through the roof. So no, we should not keep funding an illegal war of choice that’s making us less safe.”
Unlike Scalise, Van Hollen does not believe the administration’s briefings have been substantive enough.
“I have been to these briefings,” Van Hollen said. “What you learned in these briefings is exactly what you’re hearing outside the briefings, which is they don’t have any particular objective. It’s a constantly changing objective. And there’s no endgame whatsoever.”
(LOS ANGELES) — Widespread elevated fire weather danger is expected to continue across parts of the Rockies and Great Plains on Sunday, as the Southwest is forecast to see another day of record-shattering March heat wave temperatures.
Wind gusts across the Plains are forecast on Sunday to reach 30 to 60 mph. Combined with very low humidity and dry fuels, conditions could be conducive for rapid wildfire growth and spread.
The National Weather Service has issued red flag fire-danger warnings for much of the Rockies.
While not currently on alert, parts of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast will also see dry and breezy conditions on Sunday, with dry fuels contributing to an increased fire threat.
Meanwhile, the Southwest will continue to bake as a record-shattering March heat wave continues on Sunday, a day after several record-high temperature marks were matched or exceeded.
At least 18 cities across California, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada and Utah either broke or tied daily records on Saturday, including Yuma, Ariz., which hit a new daily record of 102 degrees; Death Valley, Calif., which reached 100; Phoenix, which saw temperatures soar to 96; and Las Vegas, which hit 92.
Relief from the Southwest heat wave is expected to come later this week, but not before another day of record-breaking temperatures.
Daily record highs are possible on Sunday and Monday in Las Vegas and Phoenix, with some daily record highs possibly being challenged in the Great Plains on Monday.
As the workweek progresses, a pattern change will bring warmer than normal temperatures and messy weather for the eastern half of the nation.
Overnight Monday and into Tuesday, a weak system is forecast to pass from the Upper Midwest through the Great Lakes, bringing showers and thunderstorms, some of which could be strong enough to produce gusty winds, isolated small hail, and spotty flooding.
By late Tuesday and into Wednesday, the system will continue to pass through the Great Lakes and eventually into the Northeast, spreading scattered showers and rain into the Northeast.
More messy weather is forecast through Wednesday and Thursday across the eastern half of the nation, mainly with scattered showers and some thunderstorms.
As April arrives on Wednesday, the weather pattern will start to change, likely bringing warmer-than-normal temperatures for the eastern half of the country. The West could also experience warmer-than-normal temperatures returning as April progresses.
What’s likely to remain consistent across the West is drier-than-normal weather, adding to an ongoing drought and record-low snowpack across the West.
Jacob Lake, Arizona, Burned trees from the Dragon Bravo Fire. The wildfire burned 145,000 acres on the north rim of the Grand Canyon and in Kaibab National Forest. (Photo by: Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Several regions in the West could be facing worsening drought conditions, increased wildfire risk, and reduced water supplies due to record-breaking temperatures and minimal winter snowpack.
Much of the West has been coping with prolonged drought conditions that are now being worsened by historically low seasonal snowpack and persistent record-breaking temperatures. With mountain snowpack sharply reduced, the region’s water supplies are facing mounting challenges and elevated wildfire risk is occurring earlier than usual.
More than half of the West continues to experience drought conditions of varying intensity, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The ongoing drought was compounded by the region’s warmest winter on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The drought and record-warm winter were followed by unprecedented, record-breaking heat in March, further intensifying conditions across the region.
Rounds of rain and mountain snow are expected to impact parts of the West in the coming weeks.
However, a full recovery is unlikely in the near term, meaning many detrimental impacts could persist, or even intensify, through the rest of the year. However, the long-term outlook remains uncertain, with the strength of the upcoming monsoon season and the potential development of El Niño and other influential factors.
Record low snowpack Every major river basin and state in the West is experiencing a snow drought, a period of abnormally little snowpack for the time of year, according to NOAA.
The snow drought has significantly worsened in recent weeks following the unprecedented record-breaking March heat in the region. Snowpack is a significant indicator of drought conditions but not the only one.
Many major river basins, including the Colorado River Basin, are experiencing record-low season-to-date snowpack levels. A key metric in assessing these conditions is snow water equivalent, the amount of water contained within the snowpack. It serves as a critical indicator of the West’s water supply, helping determine how much runoff will flow into rivers and reservoirs during the spring melt.
When there is a snow drought in the West, it means “there will be a lack of available water due to the low snowpack to meet the water supply demands of the critical economic sectors we have,” Jason Gerlich, regional drought early warning system coordinator for the NOAA-National Integrated Drought Information System, told ABC News.
While many areas received average or above-average precipitation in the fall and early winter, warmer temperatures led much of it to fall as rain rather than snow, resulting in unusually low snowpack, which typically acts as a natural reservoir.
“If winter precipitation is falling as rain instead of snow, our relationship with water in the West becomes even shakier,” said Casey Olson, a climate scientist with the Utah Climate Center. “A gallon of winter rain that immediately runs off downstream is not nearly as helpful come July as a gallon of snowpack that melts in April or May. They are not equivalent gallons of precipitation in terms of our ability to use them when we need them the most.”
Snowpack across the western United States typically peaks in late March or early April, marking a critical point in the region’s water supply outlook. While additional mountain snowfall remains possible through April, and in some higher elevations, into May, recovery to normal snowpack is not climatologically possible at this point, Gerlich noted.
Drought on its own already stresses water supplies, agriculture, and ecosystems. But when winter fails to deliver significant mountain snow, those impacts can intensify. In some states, up to about 75 percent of water supplies can come from melting snow, according to the USGS.
Mounting water supply concerns The Colorado River provides water for more than 40 million people and fuels hydropower resources in seven states: California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Major reservoirs in the Colorado River Basin remain well below average, the agency’s latest data shows, heightening concerns about water availability across the region.
Lake Powell, the second largest reservoir in the United States, is one of them. Water levels have dropped roughly 7 feet so far this year and are forecast to continue a gradual decline through the months ahead. Despite the recent drop, the reservoir remains more than 8 feet above its record low set in April 2023.
However, current projections suggest that level could be approached, or even challenged again, by late summer if dry conditions persist.
Denver Water, the city’s public water utility, announced water restrictions for the first time since 2013 on Wednesday, seeking a 20% reduction in water use.
“The snowpack within Denver Water’s collection system has deteriorated significantly and continues to decline,” said Nathan Elder, Denver Water’s manager of water supply. “Snowpack levels in both basins are now the lowest observed in the past 40 years, with accelerated melting underway.”
Experts warn that restrictions are likely to expand in multiple states as the year progresses, barring significant changes.
Wildfire concerns increase; Long-term risk remains uncertain A large portion of the West will likely face an elevated wildfire risk this spring and summer driven by low snowpack, dry soils, and above-average temperatures, leaving vegetation drier and more flammable than usual.
However, experts say the long-term wildfire outlook for the region is less certain than it might seem and the risk could vary in intensity in the coming months, depending on conditions.
“Low snowpack and fire don’t have a one-to-one relationship, but low snowpack can lead to an early start to the fire season,” Gerlich said.
The record-breaking March heat further dried the landscape, priming it for wildfires earlier than usual. Parts of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico have already seen impactful wildfires this year. Experts say the long-term wildfire outlook hinges on how several key conditions develop over the next few months.
“One positive right now is that the last few years have resulted in limited growth of the fine fuels that are quick to burn, so that does help temper fire risk for areas in the West, however, the lack of snowpack this year presents conditions through the high timber forests where fire risk this summer could be very high,” Olson added.
The latest outlook from the National Interagency Fire Center shows an overall near-average risk of significant wildland fires across the West through May with a more widespread above-average risk unfolding across the Four Corners region, including parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona in June.
“The Southwest looks to continue with the warm and dry seasonal pattern. One source of optimism is for the possibility of an active monsoon pattern this summer,” said Olson. “An active monsoon system in general should provide some relief to portions of the Southwest states, the question remains exactly where that relief would focus, and we won’t have a good handle on that until later this spring.”
Automobiles pass a former postal and telegraph building, where Bank of America Corp. is leasing space for 400 workers, in Paris, France, on Wednesday April 10, 2019. (Photographer: Christophe Morin/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Authorities in France are investigating an attempted terror attack in which a man allegedly tried to detonate an explosive device in Paris, according to officials.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez congratulated French police for thwarting the “violent” attack in Paris overnight Saturday, where the suspect attempted to set off the explosive outside the Bank of America building in the central part of the city.
The “swift intervention” of police prevented the attack, which Nuñez described as “of a terrorist nature” in a post on X.
“Vigilance remains at a very high level,” Nuñez wrote. “I commend all the security and intelligence forces fully mobilized under my authority in the current international context.”
Police had noticed two men with a shopping bag outside the building, RTL France, a French radio station, reported.
One of the bags contained a bag of liquid taped to a large firework, according to the report. Police said they approached the pair when one of the suspects attempted to set fire to the device.
One suspect was arrested on Saturday in the early morning hours, but the other suspect escaped, RTL France reported.
Additional details were not immediately available.
The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office is leading in the investigation, Nuñez said.
(NEW YORK) — A large swath of the country is expected to face dangerous heat and fire weather conditions this weekend, forecasts show.
The National Weather Service has issued red flag warnings for more than 47 million Americans from the Great Plains to the Southeast on Saturday due to widespread critical fire weather danger.
Wind gusts in the Plains are expected to reach 30 to 60 mph on Saturday. Combined with very low humidity and dry fuels, conditions could be conducive for rapid wildfire growth and spread.
Gusty winds and dry conditions will also be in place from the Gulf Coast inland across the Southeast, including cities such as Lake Charles, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; Birmingham, Alabama; Tallahassee, Florida; Charleston, South Carolina; and Asheville, North Carolina.
Meanwhile, a temperature roller coaster is expected in other parts of the country this weekend.
A cooldown has swept across the Midwest and Northeast following warm spring days earlier in the week.
Places in the Midwest and Northeast, like Chicago and New York City, will be noticeably cooler for Saturday, but will rebound to seasonable highs by the beginning of the new workweek.
In some regions, temperatures on Saturday will be at least 10 to 20 degrees cooler than Friday — following record high temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday and seasonably warm temperatures on Friday — forecasts show.
On Friday, some regions in the mid-Atlantic broke or tied their daily record highs for March 27, including Savannah, Georgia, which reached 89 degrees Fahrenheit, and Columbia, South Carolina, which reached 88 degrees.
As March wraps up, a pattern change will bring likely warmer than normal temperatures for the eastern half of the nation and near normal temperatures for the western half for the beginning of April.
But record-shattering heat will continue in the Southeast, with no relief coming this weekend.
Friday saw another day of record-breaking temperatures.
Phoenix reached 102 degrees; Death Valley reached 101 degrees; and Tucson, Arizona, reached 98 degrees.
Daily record highs are possible again this weekend for Las Vegas and Phoenix.
Between March 15 and March 26, more than 100 monthly records were broken or tied, and 700 daily records were broken or tied across the country, according to the National Weather Service.
Since March 1, there have been more than 1,100 daily records broken or tied across the nation.
Demonstrators gather in Commons Park for the ‘No Kings!’ rally and march on October 18, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. (Photo by Christopher Mark Juhn/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — “No Kings” protesters are expected to take to the streets in more than 3,000 cities and towns across the country Saturday to again call out President Donald Trump and his controversial polices, with organizers saying this one could be the biggest so far.
The “No Kings” protests are the latest since October and organizers said they are looking to send a message addressing what they call “the constant chaos of the Trump administration” since then.
From the use of federal troops for immigration enforcement, to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis, to Trump’s war with Iran, members of the National No Kings Coalition said Americans are looking to raise their voices in protest.
“The people coming out will be asked to show up on an ongoing basis for ICE watch, for mutual aid, for support of immigrant communities, for advocacy against this illegal and catastrophic war, for voter registration and all the work of building power locally,” Leah Greenberg, Co-Director of Indivisible, one of the coalition’s groups, said in a statement Thursday.
The organizers, from groups that include the ACLU, National Action Network and the United Federation of Teachers, said that they have over 3,200 events planned across cities and are expecting it to be bigger than the October event, which they say drew more than 7 million protesters.
Saturday marks the third “No Kings” demonstration since Trump returned office.
They have called for protesters to be peaceful just like last time, when there were no disturbances or reports of violence.
In New York City, the rally will begin in Columbus Circle, near Trump International Luxury Hotel, and march down over 20 blocks, according to protesters. It will include a who’s who of celebrities, including actor Robert de Niro.
In Minneapolis, which saw tens of thousands of protesters hit the streets in January and February following the Good and Pretti killings, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Bruce Springsteen are scheduled to speak at the event there, according to “No Kings” organizers.
The White House and other allies have not commented on this weekend’s events, but in the past they and some Republicans argued he protests were “hate America” rallies.
Trump himself dismissed the protests in October telling reporters, “I’m not a king,” prior to the rallies.
Afterward, the president re-posted an AI-generated video on his social media platform showing him piloting a fighter jet, appearing to dumping excrement on protesters.
The White House did not comment on the video. House Speaker Mike Johnson, however, came to Trump’s defense.
“The president uses social media to make the point. You can argue he’s probably the most effective person who’s ever used social media for that,” Johnson told reporters on Oct. 20. “He is using satire to make a point. He is not calling for the murder of his political opponents.”
Smoke rises after an explosion in the industrial zone, caused by debris after interception of a drone by air defence, according to the Fujairah media office on March 05, 2026, in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Christopher Pike/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — On Feb. 28, the United States and Israel launched massive strikes on Iran in an operation targeting military and government sites that President Donald Trump has said could last as little as four weeks.
One month later, both countries remain engaged in a war that has impacted the wider Gulf region, killing thousands of people, as the Pentagon is preparing to surge thousands of troops to the Middle East, according to U.S. officials.
As the U.S. enters its fifth week of the conflict, here’s a look at how we got here, where things stand and where they may go from here.
Negotiations break down Operation Epic Fury began months after the U.S. and Israel carried out strikes on nuclear weapons facilities in Iran, with Trump declaring at that time that the regime’s nuclear capabilities had been “obliterated.”‘
In the weeks leading up to the Feb. 28 strikes, the U.S. tried to negotiate with the Iranian regime to reach a nuclear deal, with Trump saying he was weighing whether to strike. A day before launching Operation Epic Fury against Iran, Trump said he was “not happy” with the negotiations.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was among those killed in Tehran in the initial strikes, with his son Mojtaba Khamenei later chosen to succeed him.
Trump said at the start of the “major combat operations,” which occurred without Congressional approval, that they were to “defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime,” and he called on the Iranian people to depose the regime.
In the weeks since, more than 1,440 civilians, including at least 217 children, have died from U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran as of March 23, according to a report from several human rights groups. Iranian officials have blamed the U.S. for a missile strike on an Iranian elementary school that killed nearly 170 people. The Trump administration has said it is investigating the incident.
Regional allies attacked Iran retaliated against the strikes with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases and multiple Gulf nations, primarily targeting U.S. interests in the region.
Thirteen American servicemembers have been killed since the war began, including seven from retaliatory strikes in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and six from an aircraft crash in Iraq. Over 300 troops have also been injured, a U.S. official said Friday.
Iran has also launched a series of retaliatory strikes against the energy infrastructure in several Gulf states after Israel hit its largest gas field — in what one Qatari official called a “dangerous escalation.”
Experts say the strikes and the threat of further attacks risk throwing global energy markets into a state of protracted chaos.
Amid the conflict, Israel has also intensified its long-running strike campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and expanded its ground operations in the south of the country. More than 1,000 people have been killed and thousands more injured in Lebanon amid this escalation, according to Lebanese officials.
In response to the U.S.-Israeli strikes, Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital maritime passage for the oil and shipping trades, threatening an energy crisis.
Iran has attacked several oil tankers since the war began in late February, halting nearly all shipping traffic. The supply shock has sent the price of oil surging.
Trump has threatened to attack Iran’s power plants if it doesn’t fully reopen the strait, since extending the deadline to do so to April 6.
US’ expansive aims Trump’s stated goals in Iran have shifted and expanded in the weeks since the conflict began, from talks of regime change and peace throughout the Middle East to, more recently, reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Among other key aims, the U.S. military has said Iran’s navy and ballistic missile stocks and production capabilities have been degraded by airstrikes.
Making sure Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon has been another major goal of Trump’s. Iran’s intent to build a nuclear weapon, according to Trump, was a central justification for the war.
Trump has suggested that Americans could go in to seize Iran’s enriched uranium. Experts previously told ABC News that a large American force on the ground would likely be needed to take the nuclear material but would carry a lot of risk.
During a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance emphasized the importance of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and warned that there are “further military options” possible.
Where things go from here The White House has said “productive” negotiations have been ongoing between the U.S. and Iran, while officials in Tehran have publicly denied that any talks have taken place.
The U.S. has presented Iran with a 15-point framework for a peace deal via Pakistan, according to White House special envoy Steve Witkoff. As of Friday, the U.S. has not received a response from Iran, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Sources previously told ABC News the plan addressed Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs as well as maritime routes.
The negotiations come as the U.S. is preparing to surge as many as 5,000 troops to the Middle East, according to two U.S. officials, and the Pentagon is seeking $200 billion in supplemental funding for the war. The funding request has been met with bipartisan skepticism from some lawmakers.
Rubio on Friday declined to answer questions from reporters on whether the U.S. planned to deploy ground troops in Iran. Though he said the U.S. can achieve its goals without putting boots on the ground.
Trump, who has said he believed the war could last up to four weeks, and at other times four to six weeks, said this week that the operation is “ahead of schedule” and should end soon. Rubio told reporters Friday that the operation could end in a “matter of weeks, not months.”
The Israel Defense Forces said Friday they need “a few more weeks” to fully degrade Iranian military capabilities, such as missile-launchers, a senior Israeli security official told ABC News.
Ballots are counted on election night at the Fulton County Elections Hub and Operation Center on November 5, 2024 in Fairburn, Georgia. (Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The FBI’s application for the warrant that led to the search and seizure of more than 650 boxes of 2020 election records from a Fulton County, Georgia, election site in January lacked any kind of evidence of intentional misconduct and relied on incorrect information, an elections expert with twenty years of experience told a federal judge Friday.
Testifying as Fulton County’s first witness in its lawsuit against the Trump administration, Ryan Macias told the court that his review of the claims made by the FBI in their application lacked a “basis in reality.”
“The content of the witnesses is incorrect and in many cases contradictory,” he said. “The information in there is not based in reality.”
Lawyers with the Department of Justice attempted to cast doubt on Macias’ testimony by arguing he lacks direct knowledge of the testimony in the case and is inexperienced in criminal investigations, though he was only qualified as an expert on election administration. Macias worked for both the federal government and California to administer elections as well as consulted for Fulton County in 2020.
Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva broadly claimed, without citing any examples, that criminal investigations regularly stem from matters where initial investigations found no evidence of wrongdoing.
“Are you aware that happens all the time?” Duva asked Macias.
“No,” Macias responded.
“That’s because you don’t know,” Duva responded.
During his direct examination, Macias went through each of the claims made in the FBI’s application for the warrant to debunk and cast doubt on each allegation.
“Do ballot images have any impact on the final tabulation of ballots?” asked attorney Kamal Ghali, referencing the claim that election officials produced inconsistent numbers of ballot images from the 2020 election.
“No they do not,” Macias said.
“Is the absence of ballot images evidence of misconduct?” Ghali asked.
“No it is not,” he responded.
Fulton County Superior Court Clerk Ché Alexander testified that the FBI refused her request to help her make an inventory of the election records they seized from her office. She testified that she was at her office during the raid and asked to make an inventory to secure the chain of custody for more than 600 boxes of records, including original ballots from the election.
“I asked the agent to go box by box to understand what they were taking and they said absolutely not,” Alexander testified, though the FBI likely did an inventory of their own.
“I have a personal interest to do my job to keep those records safe and secure,” Alexander said. “I am under a court order to maintain records I do not have.”
DOJ lawyers sought to cast doubt on her claims, including by playing a video from a 2023 court proceeding when a lawyer for her office urged a judge to allow the removal of the records. According to the attorney, Fulton County wanted to make room for incoming records related to the 2024 election.
“Her obligation is over at this point,” the attorney for Fulton County said in 2023. “It has a significant impact on operations. The records cannot just be kept there forever.”
DOJ attorney Peter Cooch argued that the search of the office was effectively doing Alexander a favor, remarking, “Now that the records are sealed, the space is available to you now.”
DOJ lawyers also played body camera footage from the raid in which Fulton County’s elections director can be heard saying, “If you want to take off 700 boxes of ballots, have at it … They can go play paper airplanes for all I care.”
Attorney Abbe Lowell, representing the Fulton County officials, argued that the search was based on incorrect information from unreliable witnesses related to claims that are years beyond the statute of limitations.
“A week doesn’t go by without someone in the administration making an allegation of voter fraud,” Lowell said before reminding the judge that the investigation itself originated from an attorney who tried to overturn the 2020 election who was previously sanctioned for making false claims about the outcome. Lowell said the reliance on the unreliable witnesses would make “George Orwell smile in his grave.”
DOJ attorneys have insisted that the search was based on evidence of potential misconduct and accused Fulton County officials of speculating about “some kind of grand conspiracy.”
“It just seems like a loosey-goosey theory,” said DOJ attorney Michael Weisbuch. “They don’t like the vibe of what’s happening because that’s not a constitutional standard.”
U.S. District Judge JP Boulee, a Trump appointee, will decide on Fulton County’s request to force the Trump administration to return the sensitive records taken from the election site.
After election officials raised concerns about the basis for the January 2026 search, Judge Boulee last month ordered the Department of Justice to publicly release the application for the warrant, which revealed that the investigation was triggered by an attorney and close ally of President Trump who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
According to the unsealed court records, the investigation centers on long-debunked allegations of voter fraud that have already been thoroughly investigated.
Fulton County election officials have since pushed for the return of the records, arguing that the investigation focuses on “human errors that its own sources confirm occur in almost every election … without any intentional wrongdoing whatsoever.”
“The Affidavit omits numerous material facts — including from the very reports and publicly-disclosed investigations that the Affiant cites — that confirm the alleged conduct was previously investigated and found to be unintentional,” attorneys for the Fulton County officials argued.
In a late setback ahead of Friday’s hearing, Judge Boulee quashed an attempt to force the FBI agent behind the search warrant to testify, concluding that questioning the agent could reveal “process and scope of the DOJ’s investigation,” which remains ongoing.
President Donald Trump has long criticized the outcome of the 2020 election results in Georgia, personally pushing to overturn the results after his loss and later being indicted in two criminal cases over his actions. Those cases have since been dismissed, and Trump has continued to push for criminal accountability for what he baselessly alleged was a stolen election.
Through a call with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — who was present at the January raid — President Trump personally addressed some of the agents who conducted the search and told them they were doing great work by investigating Georgia’s elections, ABC News previously reported.
“I was at Fulton County, sir, at the request of the president and to work with the FBI to observe this action that had long been awaited,” Gabbard told lawmakers earlier this month when asked about her presence at the search. “It is my role based on statute that Congress has passed to have oversight over election security to include counterintelligence.”
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), March 27, 2026, in New York. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Stocks closed significantly lower on Friday as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran showed little sign of an imminent resolution that would end one of the worst global oil shocks in decades.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 790 points, or 1.7%, while the S&P 500 fell 1.6%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 2.1%.
The session on Friday marked the end of a woeful week for the major stock indexes. The Dow declined 1% this week, while the S&P 500 fell 2%. The Nasdaq decreased 3%.
Late Thursday, President Donald Trump postponed U.S. attacks on power plants in Iran in an apparent effort to avoid escalation of the Middle East conflict.
In a post on social media on Thursday, Trump said he was “pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction” until April 6.
In the event of such an attack, Iran has said it would carry out strikes against energy infrastructure in neighboring countries, according to Iran’s Fars News Agency state media.
Wall Street appeared to find little solace in the reprieve from large-scale tit-for-tat attacks on infrastructure.
Iran continues to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for oil delivery. The strait facilitates the transport of about one-fifth of the global supply of crude oil and natural gas.
Global oil prices stood at about $113 a barrel on Friday, marking a staggering 61% rise since war with Iran began a month ago.
Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), earlier this week said the current oil crisis had surpassed the combined effect of worldwide energy shocks in the 1970s.
The global economy faces a “major, major threat,” Birol said at an event in Canberra, Australia, noting that no country would be “immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues to go in this direction.”
U.S. Treasury yields climbed on Thursday, suggesting concern about economic instability and inflation stemming from the Iran war.
The yield on a 10-year Treasury bond, or the amount paid to a bondholder annually, stands at about 4.45%, marking a nearly half-percentage point jump from a month earlier.
On Friday, bond yields soared close to levels reached in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs last April, when the 10-year Treasury yield peaked at around 4.5%.
Since bonds pay a given investor a fixed amount each year, the specter of inflation risks higher prices that would eat away at those annual payouts.
In turn, bonds often become less attractive in response to economic turmoil. When demand falls, bond yields rise.
