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 have let all of the congressional leadership know in advance of the strikes, but they’ve also had briefings on Capitol Hill.”

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.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

“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.”

WASHINGTON — Cage-match fighting is coming to the White House to fete President Donald Trump, a proud proponent of cage-match politics.

In the coming weeks, crews will erect a 6-foot wire-mesh fence shaped into an octagon on the lawn, where UFC fighters will use a combination of kickboxing, jiujitsu, wrestling and other martial arts in a June 14 mixed martial arts show timed for Trump’s 80th birthday and as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

The celebration of bloody, brute force dovetails with Trump’s gleefully combative charisma and extreme ideological masculinity — a brawling, no-holds-barred approach to the highest office in the land.

“I have respect for fighters, you know, when you can take 200 shots to the face and then look forward to the second round,” Trump told podcaster Logan Paul as he campaigned for his second term.

Trump was the first sitting president to attend a UFC show, taking in a 2019 fight that was stopped because of a cut over the loser’s eye that left blood pouring down the fighter’s face.

To the uninitiated, the sport celebrates violence. It is wildly popular with young men.

“A lot of people don’t understand fighting and they think fighting is about anger. It’s not. If you’re angry when you fight, you’ll lose,” said veteran MMA referee and commentator “Big John” McCarthy.

“Fighting is about technique and style, and understanding how to make your opponent make mistakes while you don’t,” McCarthy said.

“I totally understand why he likes it,” he added of Trump. “Because I do.”

It is hard to find a phrase more Trumpian than Ultimate Fighting Championship.

A committed devotee of hyperbole, Trump relishes grand descriptors that can elevate anything to its “ultimate” version. He also proudly fancies himself a fighter: “Fight! Fight! Fight!” became his 2024 campaign mantra, one crystalized after an assassination attempt that summer.

Then there is “championship,” another thing close to the heart of a president who constantly professes love for winning and those who do it frequently.

All of that means Trump giving UFC its largest-ever platform “is calculated. He knows what he’s doing,” said Kyle Kusz, a University of Rhode Island professor who studies the connection between sports and the far right.

Trump “uses UFC to portray himself as a manly sportsman,” said Kusz, who said he sees parallels between the sport’s style of masculinity and Trump’s approach to policy and politics.

The league is planning to issue 85,000 free tickets for the event. Trump said UFC boss Dana White, a longtime friend, will build “a 5,000-seat arena right outside the front door of the White House” and eight large screens in a nearby park for ticket-holders to watch from afar.

The show falls on a Sunday, deviating from UFC’s usual Saturday night time slot, and will be carried live on Paramount+, which is controlled by the Ellison family, also close allies of Trump. France even pushed back the Group of Seven summit it is hosting so as not to conflict with Trump’s birthday festivities.

Trump has boasted that the event will feature “all top guys.” But fans online have panned the card for lacking top talent such as former two-division champion Jon Jones, who requested his release from the UFC immediately after being excluded from the White House show. Also absent is MMA icon Conor McGregor, whose first bout since 2021 would have been a seismic moment for the sport. The UFC’s White “knows the White House card sucks,” said former champion Ronda Rousey, who is mounting her own MMA comeback outside the UFC because she says the promotion would not meet her financial expectations.

Rousey, who is close to White, says the White House show “fell extremely short of expectations.”

While still being finalized, the card features two championship fights. Brazil’s Alex Periera will meet France’s Ciryl Gane for the interim UFC heavyweight title. Then Spanish-Georgian lightweight champion Ilia Topuria takes on interim champ Justin Gaethje, one of just two Americans who currently hold even a share of the UFC’s 11 championship belts.

The White House did not answer questions about criticism of the card or the event’s aggressive politics. Instead, communications director Steven Cheung, said, “This will be one of the greatest and most historic sports events in history.”

Cheung, a UFC spokesman before joining Trump’s 2016 campaign, called Trump’s event “a testament to his vision to celebrate America’s monumental 250th anniversary.”

A UFC spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Once famously derided as “human cockfighting” by late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., UFC has been a major sports league in the United States since signing a media-rights deal with ESPN in 2018, said Patrick Wyman, a historian and host of popular podcasts on the subject who is also a former longtime MMA journalist.

Trump, a fixture at heavyweight boxing matches in the 1980s, gave UFC a boost a generation ago by hosting early bouts, including 2001’s “Battle on the Boardwalk,” at his casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Wyman said that even as Trump and White have remained close, UFC has deliberately prioritized building the league’s brand over that of its individual fighters. That has kept most stars from achieving crossover appeal.

As a result, Wyman said UFC remains most popular with men in their mid-40s to early 60s — a demographic already inclined to be Trump supporters.

“I think it’s a pretty perfect encapsulation of the way that Donald Trump thinks about politics,” Wyman said of the White House event, citing its “transactional nature” and “how impossible it is to draw firm lines between business and politics.”

In 2014, Trump invested in his own, short-lived MMA league. A decade later, his reelection campaign enhanced his UFC ties, seeking to reach voters who do not usually engage in traditional politics.

Two days after he was convicted on 34 felony counts in a hush money case in June 2024, Trump went to a UFC bout in New Jersey, strolling out into the crowd with White while Kid Rock’s “American Bad Ass” blared. Trump’s campaign used footage of the raucous ovation to help launch its TikTok account.

Then, after his election victory, Trump triumphantly appeared with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and a large political entourage at a UFC fight in New York. He also attended UFC bouts in Newark and Miami last year.

Trump, who has built a large portion of his domestic travel around sporting events, is not unique among presidents using sports to appeal to voters.

Republican George W. Bush zinging a pitch in from Yankee Stadium’s mound during the 2001 World Series is remembered as a moment of resilience after the Sept. 11 attacks. Republican Richard Nixon so publicly embraced his football fandom that aides worried it might alienate some voters, said Chris Cillizza, author of “Power Players: Sports, Politics, and the American Presidency.”

Such worries are gone today, though, since sports “now tends to self-select by political affiliation,” he said.

“In an era where people feel like politicians are mostly weirdo aliens,” Cillizza said “sports — playing them, having knowledge about them — represents one of the best ways to prove to voters you are actually a human being.”

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Associated Press writers Greg Beacham in Los Angeles and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

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.

Watch special coverage on Nightline, “War with Iran,” each night on ABC and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

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.

Strait of Hormuz shutdown

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.

The House voted Friday to approve a short-term bill to fund the entire Department of Homeland Security for eight weeks, sending the measure back to the Senate, where the top Democrat says it is “dead on arrival.” 

The House vote late Friday was 213-203. Three Democrats crossed party lines to vote in favor: Reps. Henry Cuellar, of Texas; Don Davis, of North Carolina; and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, of Washington. 

The ongoing Capitol Hill impasse means the partial shutdown is expected to drag on as lawmakers fight over a path forward.

The House vote to extend funding for all of DHS through May 22 came several hours after the Senate approved a bill early Friday morning to fund most of DHS except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and parts of Customs and Border Protection.

Ahead of the House vote, Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had vowed that the House bill would be “dead on arrival” in the Senate, meaning Democrats will not provide enough support to reach a 60-vote threshold. 

Senators have left town for a two-week recess and are not planning to return until Monday, April 13. House members are also leaving to depart for the two-week holiday break and are not planning to return until Tuesday, April 14. 

Earlier Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP leaders rejected the Senate-passed DHS bill.

 “This gambit that was done last night is a joke,” Johnson told reporters in a news conference on Friday. 

Amid the gridlock on Capitol Hill, President Donald Trump on Friday signed a presidential memorandum directing Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA employees. DHS said that workers will start seeing paychecks on Monday.

President Trump, in a phone interview with Fox News on Friday afternoon, said the Senate deal on DHS “wasn’t good” and “wasn’t appropriate.”

The Senate, at 2 a.m. on Friday morning, approved a funding bill that included TSA, Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The package did not include money for ICE or parts of CBP, though those agencies continue to receive funds due to an influx of cash provided in the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill passed by Congress last summer.

Also absent from the Senate bill are any of the reforms to ICE’s operating procedures that Democrats have been repeatedly demanding following the fatal shootings of two American citizens in Minneapolis by federal agents earlier this year.

Still, Schumer said he was proud of Democrats who “held the line” on their objection to funding ICE and CBP without reforms.

“Democrats held firm in our position that Donald Trump’s rogue and deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms and we will continue to fight for those reforms,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune lambasted Democrats on the floor for what he framed as their refusal to negotiate in good faith. He said Democrats could have secured some of their desired reforms if they hadn’t complicated negotiations.

“We could be standing here right now passing a funding bill with a list of reforms if the Democrats had made the smallest effort to actually reach an agreement. But they didn’t, because it’s now clear to everyone, Democrats didn’t actually want a solution, they wanted an issue, politics over policy, self-interest over reform, pandering to their base over actually solving a problem,” Thune said.

Senate Republicans vowed to work on a package later this year to approve even more funding for ICE and CBP, saying they aim to do it using reconciliation — a budget tool that, if successful, would allow them to sidestep Democratic objection and pass the bill without any Democratic support.

Republicans are already warning that that bill will be much harsher and Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., vowed it would “supercharge deportations.”

ABC News’ Allison Pecorin and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A state-run immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” must provide people detained there with better access to their attorneys, a federal judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell issued a preliminary injunction saying Alligator Alcatraz officials must provide access to timely, free, confidential, unmonitored, unrecorded outgoing legal calls. They must also provide at least one operable telephone for every 25 people held in the facility. The order also outlined information that must be made available to the detained people and their attorneys in multiple languages.

Attorneys previously filed statements with a federal court in Fort Myers saying their clients were unable to call them using staff cellphones and the attorneys were unable to make unannounced visits to the facility.

A state contractor testified in January that both options were available to detained people and their attorneys during a hearing over whether people held at the facility were getting adequate access to their lawyers.

The Florida Department of Emergency Management, the state agency overseeing the detention center, didn’t respond to an emailed inquiry Friday. The Everglades facility was built last summer at a remote airstrip by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to support President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Florida also has built a second immigration detention center in north Florida.

The lawsuit from people formerly held at the Everglades facility claims that their First Amendment rights were violated. They say attorneys have to make an appointment to visit three days in advance, unlike at other immigration detention facilities where lawyers can just show up during visiting hours; that detained people often are transferred to other facilities before their attorneys’ appointments to see them; and that scheduling delays have been so lengthy that detainees were unable to meet with attorneys before key deadlines.

State officials who are defendants in the lawsuit have denied restricting detained people’s access to their attorneys and cited security and staffing reasons for any challenges. Federal officials who also are defendants denied that detainees’ First Amendment rights were violated.

Tiger Woods has been arrested and charged with driving under the influence following a rollover crash in Jupiter Island, Florida, on Friday afternoon, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said.

Investigators said the crash happened before 2 p.m. in the 280 block of South Beach Road when a truck pulling a small pressure-cleaning trailer was traveling north and slowing to turn into a driveway. That’s when a Land Rover, driven by Woods, approached from behind at a high rate speed, the sheriff’s office said.

The Land Rover attempted to pass the truck but clipped the back of the trailer, according to authorities. The impact caused the SUV to tip onto the driver’s side and slide along the road before coming to a stop. Woods was able to exit the vehicle through the passenger side, authorities said.

No one was injured during the crash, including Woods and the truck driver, the sheriff’s office said.

During a press conference Friday, the sheriff’s office said that Woods exhibited signs of impairment at the scene of the crash and was arrested.

The sheriff’s office said Woods agreed to take a breathalyzer test which showed no alcohol in his system, but refused to take a urine test, which is used to detect drugs or medication.

Investigators said they believe impairment may have been caused by medication, though no substances were found in the vehicle.

In addition to driving under the influence with property damage, Woods was charged with refusal to submit to a lawful test. Both are misdemeanors.

Authorities added that the road where the crash took place is a narrow, two-lane roadway with a 30 mph speed limit and little room for drivers to move aside. Investigators noted the crash could have been far more serious if oncoming traffic had been present.

Woods was being held at the jail for a minimum of eight hours, as required by Florida law, and was expected to be released Friday night.

ABC News has reached out to Woods’ reps for comment.

President Donald Trump, who said he is a “close friend” to Woods, reacted to news, telling reporters during a gaggle in Miami on Friday, “I feel so badly. He’s got some difficulty. There was an accident and that’s all I know. Very close friend of mine.”

“He’s an amazing person, amazing man. But some difficulty,” he added.

In 2021, the golfer was seriously hurt in a crash that occurred in Southern California.

The SUV he was driving, a 2021 Genesis GV80, was found several feet away from the center divider, in an area that had a “high-frequency” of accidents, officials said at the time.

Authorities said there was no “evidence of impairment” in that crash, adding that the wreck was “purely an accident.”

Following the accident, Woods told Golf Digest in an interview that he began a rehabilitation process that included three months in a hospital-type bed in his home.

In 2017, Woods was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in Jupiter, Florida. An incident report at the time said that he was asleep and “had to be woken up.” Woods was later released on his own recognizance.

Woods shared a statement after the incident apologizing to his family, friends and fans.

Hackers breached FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email, according to sources familiar with the situation. 

The majority of the emails were from prior to 2019, according to sources, and appear to be from before his tenure at the FBI. There were a few emails from 2022, sources told ABC News. 

“The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information, and we have taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks associated with this activity. The information in question is historical in nature and involves no government information,” the FBI said in a statement Friday.

It is unclear which country hacked the director’s old emails, however, Iranian-linked hackers online have claimed credit for the hack. 

“The Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program offers up to a $10 million reward for information leading to the identification of the Handala Hack Team out of Iran — a group that has frequently targeted U.S. government officials,” the FBI said.

Reuters was the first to report the breach. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Lawyers for the Trump administration will face serious questions for the first time on Friday about the search and seizure of more than 650 boxes of 2020 election records from a Fulton County, Georgia, election site. 

Fulton County officials have argued the FBI “intentionally or recklessly omitted material facts” about purported discrepancies in the 2020 election in Georgia to secure a warrant for the materials, and a federal judge is considering a request to force the Trump administration to return the sensitive records. 

“Despite years of investigations of the 2020 election, the [search warrant] affidavit does not identify facts that establish probable cause that anyone committed a crime,” lawyers for the Fulton County officials wrote in court filing. “The Affiant failed to include facts — including from the very sources he cited — that shut the door on even the faintest possibility of probable cause.”

U.S. District Judge JP Boulee, a Trump appointee, scheduled a six-hour evidentiary hearing for Friday to determine whether the Trump administration showed “callous disregard” for constitutional rights by executing the controversial search earlier this year. 

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. 

Lawyers for the Trump administration have pushed back on the request, highlighting that the search was approved by a magistrate judge and arguing that the lawsuit was a “way to get a sneak peek at ongoing criminal investigations.”

“Petitioners’ attempt to turn a semantic dispute into a deliberate falsehood (with no citation to any offer of proof on this issue) is beyond the pale. And given the other evidence, probable cause would easily exist without the County’s admissions,” DOJ lawyers argued in court filings. 

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 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.” 

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has banned its sports teams from traveling to countries it considers “hostile,” Iranian state TV reported Thursday ahead of Tractor FC’s scheduled soccer game in Saudi Arabia.

The ban announced by Iran’s Ministry of Sports in Tehran didn’t mention the World Cup which starts June 11 in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The ministry’s statement singled out the Tractor game against Shabab Al Ahli of Dubai that was set to be played in Saudi Arabia. It’s a playoff game in the Asian Champions League Elite.

“The presence of national and club teams in countries that are considered hostile and are unable to ensure the security of Iranian athletes and team members is prohibited until further notice,” it said.

The Iran war has impacted the region, with nearly every country in the Middle East sustaining damage from missile hits, drone strikes or shrapnel.

Tractor’s playoff game in Saudi Arabia was the result of the Asian Football Confederation’s draw Wednesday to determine the quarterfinal pairings, a day after announcing that the western zone playoffs that were postponed because of the war in the Middle East have been rescheduled for April 13-14 in Jeddah.

The Saudi city is also slated to host the tournament quarterfinals, semifinals and final from April 16-25, with organizers setting the dates and hoping for peace in the region.

The Iranian ministry added that the soccer federation and clubs “will be responsible for notifying the Asian Football Confederation of this matter in order to relocate the games.”

The Iranian ambassador in Mexico City has said the country was negotiating with FIFA to move Iran’s three group-stage matches from the United States to Mexico after U.S. President Donald Trump discouraged the team from attending the 48-nation tournament, citing safety concerns.

Last week, however, FIFA President Gianni Infantino further dampened Iran’s attempts to move its World Cup matches, saying global soccer’s governing body wants the tournament “to go ahead as scheduled.”

Iranian government and soccer officials have said they do not want to boycott the World Cup but that it is not possible for the national team to come to the U.S. because of military attacks on the country by Israel and U.S. since Feb. 28.

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AP soccer: