FBI secretly seizes election records from Arizona’s largest county as voting probe expands3/8/26

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The FBI is expanding its criminal probe into suspected election irregularities,secretly obtaining a large tranche of voting records from Arizona’s largest county with a recent grand jury subpoena, multiple people familiar with the probe told Just the News.

The sources, who spoke only on condition of anonymitybecause of the secrecy of the grand jury probe, said FBI agents are receiving gigabytes of electronic election data from Maricopa County, about a month after the bureau first disclosedan investigation into election irregularities by raiding a warehouse near Atlantaand seizing ballots from the 2020 election conducted in Fulton County, Georgia’s largest metropolis.

Election irregularities in Arizona and elsewhere

The subpoena comes five years after the GOP-led Arizona state Senate conducted a lengthy investigation into the 2020 election and concluded there were significant irregularities.

More recently, the bureau was alerted to a reportfiled by Republican and Democrat election observers who believed they observed irregularities in November 2024 at a warehouse in Arizona where blank and filled-out absentee ballots were observed in the same location, according to the sources.

Congress has never released the report from the staffers who were sent to observe the 2024 electionin Maricopa County, which includes Arizona’s largest city of Phoenix.

But House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil recently hinted at the significance of the report in an interview with the Just the News, No Noise television show.

“We’re digging back through those reports that were submitted by our election observers that were deployed across the country,” Steil said. “This is where working hand in glove with other federal government agencies is so important.

“We have reports documenting instances that occurred in Arizona and across the country, and we are reviewing those in real time and working hand in glove with federal partners to make sure that the law was followed in every jurisdiction in the country,” he added.

FBI likely to expand ballot-related searches elsewhere

The sources said the joint report filed by one GOP and one Democratic observer who were in Maricopa County on election night 2024included photos of the ballots and storage facility, which they described as heavily guarded and having ballots from multiple states’ elections.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/monfbi-secretly-seizes-election-records-arizonas-largest-county-voting

Here we go again

>>24361145

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Officials said that report was one of several foundations for the subpoena executed by the FBI in recent days.

Sources said the FBI is likely to execute searches and subpoenas in other states beyond Georgia and Arizona in coming weeks.

The bureau has been coy about the full extent of its probe, but the unsealed affidavit from its raid of Fulton County’s election centermade clear the bureau is looking at possible violation of federal laws that require election administratorsto follow state laws when sending out and counting ballots.

FBI Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans told the court the bureau has "substantiated" some major irregularitiesin how votes were counted in Georgia's largest urban area in the aftermath of the 2020 election and is probing whether those failures were intentional efforts to violate federal election law.

"Some of those allegations have been disprovenwhile some of those allegations have been substantiated, including through admissions by Fulton County," Evans wrote. "This warrant application is part of an FBI criminal investigation intowhether any of the improprieties were intentional acts that violated federal criminal laws."

Many of the substantiated allegations in Fulton County were previously reported by Just the News over the last five years based on its review of ballot records.

Audit suggested more than 200,000 ballots with mismatched signatures

Concerns about election counting in Arizona, and specifically Maricopa County,stretch back more than a decade as the state moved to mostly mail-in ballots. In the old days, Democrats were the early complainants.

More recently, Republicans like President Donald Trump, former gubernatorial and Senate candidate Kari Lake and now U.S. Rep. Abe Hamadeh have raised concerns about the state’s ballot distribution and counting systems.

The Arizona Senate conducted amassive audit after the 2020 election affected by COVID-19 and concluded there were irregularities. One of the Senate’s most stunning findings was an estimatethat more than 200,000 ballots with mismatched signatures= may have been counted without being reviewed, or "cured" in Maricopa County, more than eight times the 25,000 signature mismatches requiring curing that had been acknowledged by the county.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/monfbi-secretly-seizes-election-records-arizonas-largest-county-voting

>>24361149

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You can read the full report on signature verification here.

The audit did little to resolve disputes, as Democrats and Maricopa County officials argue the concerns are overblown while Republicans say they fear there are still vulnerabilities. Those clashes continue into planning for the 2026 election.

Recently, Maricopa County’s new Election Recorder Justin Heap and the county Board of Supervisors have feuded over planning for the next election, including via litigation.

The Phoenix-based boardpassed a new draft of a Shared Services Agreement (SSA) last April, a formal contract detailing how the Recorder’s Office and the board will perform election administrative duties under Arizona law.After receiving the SSA agreement, Heap made 170 different changes to it and sent it back to the board, calling it his “final offer,” according to a Maricopa County news release.

However, Heap and the board could not come to an agreement on the SSA, so he filed a lawsuit against the board two months later. Heap said the lawsuit sought to “reclaim the legal authority afforded to the County Recorder under Arizona law and ensure that [his] office is not further deprived of the resources necessary to perform those duties to the fullest extent possible.”

On Feb. 17, the board passed a new SSA.

The new SSA permitted Heap to have full control over early-voting plans, while the board kept control over funding, staffing, contracts and Election Day operations.

“Since Mr. Heap has not provided a serious response to our latest SSA offer, we felt it was important to state publicly and transparentlyhow we will go about navigating some of the most contentious issues between our respective offices so that we can ensure elections run smoothly and securely for Maricopa County voters,” Board Chair Kate Brophy McGee said.

The following week, board members sent a letter to Heap with their proposed early-voting plan despite giving him full control over it. “The Board of Supervisors strongly supports maintaining a comprehensive early in-person program consistent with prior practices,” the letter said.

Heap responded to the letter, saying that he had “serious concerns” about the board’s early voting plan. He said the proposal “makes voting inconvenient and inaccessible for a large number of Maricopa County voters.”

He told board members that he rejected their proposal because Arizona law “expressly authorizes the Recorder to establish early voting locations.”

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/monfbi-secretly-seizes-election-records-arizonas-largest-county-voting

Scoop: U.S. dismayed by Israel's Iran fuel strikes, sources say

Israel's strikes on 30 Iranian fuel depots Saturday went far beyond what the U.S. expected when Israel notified it in advance, sparking the first significant disagreement between the alliessince the war began eight days ago, according to a U.S. official, Israeli official and a source with knowledge.

Why it matters:The

U.S. is concerned Israeli strikes on infrastructure that serves ordinary Iranians could backfire strategically, rallying Iranian society to support the regime and driving up oil prices.

Driving the news:The Israeli air force's Saturday strikes created large fires in Tehran, igniting flames visible for miles and blanketing the capital in heavy smoke.

• The IDF claimed in a statement that the fuel depots "are used by the Iranian regime to supply fuel to different consumers including its military organs."

•’An Israeli military official said the strikes were intended in part to tell Iran to stop targeting Israeli civilian infrastructure.

Behind the scenes:Israeli and U.S. officials said the IDF notified the U.S. military ahead of the strikes.

• But a U.S. official said that the U.S. military was surprised by how wide-ranging they were.

• "We don't think it was a good idea," a senior U.S. official said.

An Israeli official said the U.S. message to Israel was "WTF".

The White House and the IDF didn't comment.

The big picture:While the facilities that were struck are not oil production facilities, U.S. officials are concerned the footage of burning depots could spook oil markets and push energy prices even higher.

"The president doesn't like the attack. He wants to save the oil. He doesn't want to burn it. And it reminds people of higher gas prices," a Trump adviser told Axios.

The other side:The spokesman for Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters, which oversees the military operations, warned Saturday that if attacks on Iran's oil infrastructure continue, Tehran may respond with similar strikes across the region.

He added that Iran so far hasn't targeted regional fuel and energy infrastructure and threatened that if Iran does, oil prices could hit $200 a barrel.

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, one of the most senior officials in the regime, warned that if attacks on infrastructure continue, Iran will retaliate "without delay."

What's next:A U.S. official says the disagreement and what the U.S. expects in the war is expected to be addressed at senior political levels between the two allies.

https://archive.is/p0NJS

>>24361181. Israel wants a WW, they don’t give a damn about the US or the world

Trump says ‘not happy’ with Iran’s new leader Mojtaba Khamenei - NY Post

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US President Donald Trump said he was “not happy” with Mojtaba Khamenei replacing his father as Iran’s new supreme leader, according to an interview published by the New York Post.

“Not going to tell you,” Trump said when asked about his plans for the younger Khamenei. “Not going to tell you. I’m not happy with him,” he told the newspaper.

Asked about reports the United States could deploy ground troops to Iran, Trump told the newspaper: “We haven’t made any decision on that. We’re nowhere near it.”

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202603091255

UN nuclear watchdog says 200 kg of Iran’s 60% uranium likely at Isfahan

31 minutes ago

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IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said the agency believes that a little more than 200 kilograms of Iran’s uranium enriched to up to 60% purity had been stored at the Isfahan site, and that the prevailing assumption is the material remains there.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202603092255

World will be safer place when Iran operation accomplished, Rubio says

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The US military "is getting the job DONE," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday.

"Every single day this regime in Iran has less missiles and less launchers. The factories work less, and their navy is being eviscerated."

"The world is going to be a safer and a better place when this mission is accomplished," he added.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202603093269

Araghchi says Iran ready for attacks on its oil, nuclear sites

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Iran’s foreign minister said Tehran was fully prepared to respond to any attacks against its oil and nuclear facilities.

“We know the US is plotting against our oil and nuclear sites in hopes of containing huge inflationary shock,” Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X.

“Iran is fully prepared. And we, too, have many surprises in store,” he added.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202603093269

China says ‘thorough preparations’ needed as Trump-Xi meeting hangs in the balance amid Iran war

PUBLISHED SUN, MAR 8 20263:17 AM EDT

KEY POINTS

• Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke to the press on Sunday.

• Wang emphasized the importance of the U.S. and China working together.

• The comments came as Beijing has yet to confirm when the two countries’ leaders will meet.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/08/china-says-thorough-preparations-needed-ahead-of-trump-xi-meeting.html

War makes Hormuz security unlikely, Larijani says after Macron remarks

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Iran’s top security official Ali Larijani said security in the Strait of Hormuz was unlikely while war continues, responding to French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks about reopening the waterway.

“It is unlikely that any security will be achieved in the Strait of Hormuz amid the fires of war ignited by the United States and Israel in the region, especially if it is designed by parties that were not far from supporting this war and contributing to fueling it,” Larijani said in a post on X.

His remarks came after Macron said France was preparing a defensive mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and would send two frigates to the Red Sea.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202603091419

9 Mar, 2026 11:17

Iran war exposes EU blunder in sanctioning Russia – Putin envoy

Brent oil prices peaked at nearly $120 per barrel as another energy crisis looms

The Iran war has shown that EU sanctions on Russian energy were “strategic blunders,” as oil prices have crossed $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022, Kirill Dmitriev, an investment envoy to President Vladimir Putin, has said.

In a series of posts on X from Sunday to Monday, Dmitriev commented on the rise in oil prices by around 50% since the start of the US-Israeli strikes on Iran last month. In one of the messages,he mocked the EU policymakers over what he described as a short-sighted policy of sanctioning Russia over the Ukraine conflict.

”Bingo – welcome to $100+ oil. Most thought impossible – predicted $100+ in June. Now, as most EU bureaucrats still don’t grasp consequences, predict Russian energy vital for survival & strategic blunders of restricting it will be fully exposed. Diversify to survive,” he said.

As the Brent prices peaked at almost $120 per barrel, Dmitriev noted that “$150+ is the new oil target, with even $200+ a possibility in a prolonged conflict.” He went on to explain that “the oil issue is no longer just about the Strait of Hormuz,” but also attacks on oil and gas infrastructure across the Middle East.

The oil rally was somewhat mitigated by reports that G7 countries are discussing a coordinated release of oil from their strategic reserves.

The US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which triggered Tehran’s retaliation, significantly raised the risks for vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz – a key artery for around 20% of global oil consumption. Maritime traffic through the waterway collapsed by an estimated 80% as several oil tankers were hit in the area.

The EU faced a similar price shock when it sanctioned Russia following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, with Brent crude averaging $100 per barrel throughout the year. Despite the ensuing energy crisis and heavy burden on consumers, the EU vowed to wean itself off Russian fossil fuel by the end of 2027.

US President Donald Trump brushed off the ongoing price surge on Sunday, saying higher oil costs caused by the Iran war are “a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace.”

(KEK!)

https://www.rt.com/russia/634248-iran-war-eu-russia-sanctions-blunder/

9 Mar, 2026 10:34

US defends Russian oil sanctions waiver for India

New Delhi has said it does not need permission from Washington to buy crude, as it continues imports from Russia

Top US officials have defended the rationale behind the temporary waiver of sanctions on purchases of Russian oil for India, amid a surge in oil prices caused by the Middle East conflict.

The US has urged New Delhi to buy Russian oil that is already floating at sea and redirect it to Indian refineries to “tamp down” fears of supply shortages amid the raging Iran war, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in an interview with Fox on Sunday.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ that the 30-day pause will “allow the millions and millions of barrels of oil that are sitting out on ships to go to Indian refineries.”

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Friday that India was granted a 30-day waiver to purchase oil from Russia, saying this will “alleviate pressure caused by Iran’s attempt to take global energy hostage.” He also claimed that India stopped buying Russian oil on Washington’s request.

“The Indians had been very good actors. We had asked them to stop buying sanctioned Russian oil this fall. They did. They were going to substitute it with US oil. But to ease the temporary gap of oil around the world, we have given them permission to accept the Russian oil. We may unsanction other Russian oil,” he said.

India has maintained that it does not need permission to purchase Russian oil. Media outlets cited officials on Saturday as saying India would not be relying on “a short-term waiver” for oil imports, nor was it affected by previous US attempts to make it abandon Russian energy.

“India is still importing Russian oil even [through] February 2026, and Russia is still India’s largest crude oil supplier,” the government’s Press Information Bureau was quoted by NDTV as saying.

Since 2022, India has increased oil purchases from Russia. Before Washington sanctioned two of Russia’s largest oil exporters, Rosneft and Lukoil, last October, India’s monthly imports of Russian crude hit a record high of 1.88 million barrels per day.

According to Kpler data, India’s imports of Russian oil in February 2026 stood at 1.12-1.16 million bpd, making Russia the top supplier despite a 22% drop year-on-year.

The surge in oil prices will not stop the US from waging its war on Iran, President Donald Trump has said, after Brent shot past $100 per barrel on Sunday.

https://www.rt.com/india/634242-us-defends-russian-oil-sanctions/