An election expert told a federal judge that the witnesses the FBI relied on during its investigation that led to the seizure of ballots from the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia, misunderstood elections.

Former U.S. Election Assistance Commission official Ryan Macias, “testified that the list of irregularities the FBI identified didn’t represent a crime and that the witnesses the government based their investigation on appeared misinformed,” NBC News reported.

The witnesses the FBI cited “use contradictory terminology and it represents a misunderstanding of how elections work,” Macias said.

Macias also told a judge that the evidence the Bureau used to justify the controversial seizure of the ballots “doesn’t make sense.”

READ MORE: ‘Wrong Answer’: Conservative CPAC Audience Cheers Impeachment

Fulton County officials submitted a sworn declaration from Macias, who had advised the county during the 2020 election, the Associated Press reported. He said the Justice Department’s affidavit contains “a multitude of false or misleading statements and omissions” and offered explanations for the alleged “deficiencies.”

Fulton County is suing to force the return of its election materials. Its attorney, Abbe Lowell “criticized the government’s witnesses and information, which were laid out in a since-unsealed sworn affidavit that is ‘full of inaccuracies,'” NBC reported.

Lowell also argued that the government’s witness list couldn’t be trusted because it included “someone who was sanctioned twice by the courts for lying about elections.”

The person Lowell referred to, NBC reported, was Kurt Olsen, “a Republican who tried to overturn the 2020 election results. Olsen was appointed by President Donald Trump to investigate the 2020 election from within his administration.”

Lowell also told the judge that there was no crime because there was no proof of intentional wrongdoing.

“The only element that turns normal election irregularities into crime is intent,” he said.

READ MORE: Rubio Vows to ‘Destroy’ Parts of Iran’s Military Trump Bragged Were Already Decimated

Image via Reuters 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to contradict the commander-in-chief on Friday, speaking on the administration’s war efforts in Iran.

“We’re going to destroy their navy, we are going to destroy their air force, and we are going to significantly destroy their missile launchers so they can never hide behind these things to get a nuclear weapon,” Secretary Rubio said, according to CNN. He also insisted the U.S. military is “ahead of schedule” on these goals.

But according to President Donald Trump, those goals were already completed.

“We’re having, by the way, a tremendous success, as you know, in Iran,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “We had one in Venezuela, and now we’re having one in Iran.”

“They have no Navy left. They have no Air Force left. They have no anti aircraft equipment left, no radar left, no leaders left. The leaders are all gone,” he said.

“Nobody knows who to talk to,” Trump continued, despite having also insisted that he is in productive negotiations with Iran. “But we’re actually talking to the right people and they want to make a deal so badly. You have no idea how badly they want to make a deal.”

Iran has publicly denied it is negotiating with the United States.

CNN also reported that Rubio said “that the US can achieve its objectives in the Iran war ‘without any ground troops,’ as more than 1000 extra service members have been ordered to deploy to the region.”

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re having tremendous success in Iran. They have no navy, no air force, no anti-aircraft equipment, no radar, no leaders left.

You have no idea how badly they want to make a deal and we’ll see what happens. pic.twitter.com/VXD0fokxxw

— Department of State (@StateDept) March 24, 2026

READ MORE: ‘Wrong Answer’: Conservative CPAC Audience Cheers Impeachment

Image via Reuters 

The chairman of the influential Conservative Political Action Conference was stunned on Friday when his audience delivered an unexpectedly awkward response.

“How many of you would like to see impeachment hearings?” Matt Schlapp asked.

The audience cheered, applauded, and cried, “yeah!”

Schlapp quickly cut them off.

“No. That was the wrong answer,” he retorted, appearing somewhat embarrassed.

“How many of you would like to see impeachment hearings?” Schlapp was forced to ask again.

“No,” he quickly directed.

Things did not appear to be going as planned.

“Can someone bring some coffee out?” Schlapp asked.

“We’ve got to keep this House majority!” he then declared, apparently cognizant that impeachment of the president could be possible were Republicans to lose control.

An attempt by @mschlapp to hype up the CPAC crowd goes horribly wrong —

“How many of you would like to see impeachment hearings?”

[cheers]

“That was the wrong answer…” pic.twitter.com/PQUCThdgV3

— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) March 27, 2026

READ MORE: The GOP’s Secret Weapon? A ‘Known Unknown’ That Could Swing the Midterms: Columnist

Image via Reuters