The FBI and Department of Justice have contacted Capitol Police to schedule interviews with the six members of Congress who appeared in a controversial video urging service members to ignore orders they may deem illegal, Fox News has learned.

Last week, a group of Democratic lawmakers with military and intelligence backgrounds, including Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.; Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.; Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa.; Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H.; Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa.; and Rep. Jason Crow released a video directed at service members and intelligence officers stating: ‘Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.’

In response to the video, President Donald Trump said the lawmakers should be arrested and tried for ‘seditious behavior.’ 

‘SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!’ he said. 

On Monday, the Department of War announced that it has opened a formal review into allegations of misconduct against Kelly over the video. 

The Pentagon said it may even call Kelly, a retired Navy captain, back to active duty to face court-martial proceedings or other administrative actions under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Four of the other Democrats are former military, but not retired and therefore are not subject to the UCMJ, according to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, while Slotkin is a former CIA officer.

Hegseth on Tuesday posted on X that the video ‘may seem harmless to civilians — but it carries a different weight inside the military.’

He called the video a ‘politically-motivated influence operation’ and listed reasons for his conclusion, including how the lawmakers never named a specific ‘illegal order,’ which ‘created ambiguity rather than clarity.’ He added that the video used ‘carefully scripted, legal-sounding language’ and argued that the lawmakers ‘subtly reframed military obedience around partisan distrust instead of established legal processes.’

‘In the military, vague rhetoric and ambiguity undermines trust, creates hesitation in the chain of command, and erodes cohesion,’ Hegseth wrote. ‘The military already has clear procedures for handling unlawful orders. It does not need political actors injecting doubt into an already clear chain of command.’ 

He continued: ‘As veterans of various sorts, the Seditious Six knew exactly what they were doing — sowing doubt through a politically-motivated influence operation. The @DeptofWar won’t fall for it or stand for it.’

This is a developing story; check back for updates.

Fox News’ Digital’s Morgan Phillips and Taylor Penley contributed to this report.

The Trump-aligned lawfare group founded by White House aide Stephen Miller is petitioning two of the government’s top federal health agencies to immediately repeal a Biden-era regulation they claim promotes organ transplantation allocation based on race, not medical need. 

Initially, the proposed rule from the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had an equity performance adjustment, but that part of the rule was scrapped before it was finalized.

The Increasing Organ Transplant Access (IOTA) Model in question scores selected hospitals, which are required to participate, across three domains as it relates to kidney organ transplantation: achievement, efficiency and quality. Based on the scores, hospitals will either get money for their efforts, owe money back to the federal government for not meeting expectations, or neither receive nor owe anything.  

Rather than an explicit score adjustment, the rule’s equity agenda was embedded more subtly through a ‘voluntary’ health equity plan that mandatory participating hospitals are encouraged to complete. The plan pushes hospitals to identify ‘health disparities’ and identify ‘equity goals to monitor and evaluate progress in reducing targeted health disparities,’ which will be measured by ‘one or more quantitative metrics that the IOTA participant uses to measure the reductions in target health disparities arising from the health equity plan interventions.’

‘A federal rule cannot invite or normalize discrimination—not even under the guise of improving ‘equity,” stated an America First Legal (AFL) press release accompanying the group’s petition. ‘Although CMS ultimately made Health Equity Plans ‘voluntary,’ the agency embedded them inside a mandatory federal model that encourages hospitals to integrate race and identity into transplant decision-making.’

The six-year mandatory payment program builds on earlier payment experiments, testing whether financial rewards and penalties can improve care and expand access for Medicare and Medicaid patients. The rule was published in the Federal Register on Dec. 4, and began operating on July 1, 

Meanwhile, according to AFL, 67 of the 103 hospitals mandated to participate in the IOTA Model are ‘still engaging’ in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. The conservative lawfare group argues this is normalizing ‘identity-based preferences’ within the nation’s organ transplant system.

‘The IOTA Model is a leftover remnant of an unlawful equity agenda that encouraged hospitals to view lifesaving care through a DEI lens,’ said AFL attorney Megan Redshaw. ‘Federal law requires that organ allocation be based on established medical criteria, not race or identity, and no rule should push hospitals to pursue transplant volume while layering race-based pressures onto a system already plagued by ethical failures.’

Just days after Biden took office in 2021, he signed Executive Order 13985, directing all federal agencies to conduct ‘Equity Assessments’ to determine whether ‘underserved communities and their members’ faced systemic barriers to accessing federal programs. The order also required federal agencies to develop an action plan to address those barriers.

As part of this effort, in December 2021, CMS issued a request to the public for comments on how the agency could ‘Advance Equity and Reduce Disparities in Organ Transplantation.’

‘CMS is focused on identifying potential system-wide improvements that would increase organ donations, improve transplants, enhance the quality of care in dialysis facilities, increase access to dialysis services, and advance equity in organ donation and transplantation,’ the agency said at the time. ‘Black Americans are almost four times more likely, and Latinos are 1.3 times more likely, to have kidney failure compared to White Americans. Despite the higher risk, data shows that Black and Latino patients on dialysis are less likely to be placed on the transplant waitlist and have a lower likelihood of transplantation. Because of these stark inequities, CMS’ [Request For Information] asks the public for specific ideas on advancing equity within the organ transplantation system.’ 

Trump officials and allies, including AFL, have questioned the role outside groups played during the process of drafting the final IOTA Model rule, prompting AFL to file FOIA requests as part of a broader investigation into the new IOTA model and the Biden administration’s alleged push to infuse DEI into the nation’s organ transplant framework.

One example AFL has pointed to is a ‘modernization initiative’ for the national organ transplant system under the Biden administration, which included plans to strengthen ‘equity, and performance in the organ donation and transplantation system.’ The Biden admin also announced changes to the ‘labeling of race and ethnicity information for organ donors,’ on numerous data reports used by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). 

The nation’s organ transplant system has also recently been targeted for prematurely initiating organ retrievals while patients were still alive, or improving. In July, HHS released a statement announcing an initiative to reform the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), following a federal investigation that found ‘disturbing practices by a major organ procurement organization.’

AFL argues that the IOTA Model final rule, specifically, violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, the equal protection clause, precedent established by the U.S. Supreme Court, and executive orders issued by President Donald Trump. 

The lawfare group added that the rule also exceeds CMS’ statutory authority under the Social Security Act, and is ‘arbitrary and capricious’ under the Administrative Procedure Act.  

‘The Biden Administration built this kidney transplant policy on the false premise that fairness requires discrimination,’ Redshaw said. ‘This rule treats race as a substitute for medical judgment, and it risks condemning patients to die on waitlists based on immutable traits instead of clinical need. Every American deserves equal treatment under the law, especially when life and death are at stake.’

HHS and CMS didn’t reply to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment on this story in time for publication.

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch, Melissa Rudy, and Angelica Stabile contributed to this report.

Democrats are seeking to put limits on private donations to foot the bill for President Donald Trump’s new White House ballroom amid what they say are bribery concerns. 

Trump announced in October that construction had started on the ballroom — leading to the demolition of the White House’s historic East Wing — and would be privately funded at an estimated cost of $300 million. That was up from the $200 million estimate first provided in July when the project was unveiled.

But Democrats are concerned the donors — including individuals and other organizations — are footing the bill for the project because they are seeking something in return from the Trump administration, and recently introduced legislation to try to curb it. 

Although the White House released a list of the donors in October, Democrats, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Adam Schiff of California, claim that additional oversight is needed and that the White House has not identified all donors, while others have been granted anonymity.

Among those who’ve donated to the ballroom project are Google, Apple, Meta Platforms, Amazon, Microsoft and Lockheed Martin. As a result, lawmakers argue that those who’ve contributed to the project could be doing so to curry favor with the administration, setting up a ‘pay-to-play’ relationship with the Trump administration. 

Specifically, lawmakers pointed to Google agreeing to a $22 million settlement with Trump in September, stemming from Trump’s censorship lawsuit against YouTube for banning him from the platform after the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol. Google, which owns YouTube, is also involved in an antitrust case leveled against it by the Justice Department, and therefore, could benefit from soliciting favor from the Trump administration, the lawmakers claim. 

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

‘Billionaires and giant corporations with business in front of this administration are lining up to dump millions into Trump’s new ballroom — and Trump is showing them where to sign on the dotted line,’ Warren said in a statement Tuesday. ‘Americans shouldn’t have to wonder whether President Trump is building a ballroom to facilitate a pay-to-play scheme for political favors. My new bill will put an end to what looks like bribery in plain sight.’

Warren, along with the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, spearheaded the legislation. Other lawmakers, including Schiff, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and others, have also cosponsored the measure. 

Specifically, the legislation would bar donations from organizations or individuals that present a conflict of interest, and would prohibit the president, vice president or their families and staff from soliciting donations. 

Once donations have been made and are cleared by the directors of the National Park Service and the Office of Government Ethics, the measure would then bar displaying donors’ names in recognition of the donation, and would also require a two-year freeze for the donor to lobby the federal government.

Additionally, it would prohibit using any remaining donated funds to then go toward personal use, or to benefit the president, vice president or their family and staff. 

Likewise, the measure also would require that donors disclose meetings with the federal government that occur in the year following the donation, and prohibit anonymous donations. 

‘President Trump has put a ‘for sale’ sign on the White House—soliciting hundreds of millions of dollars from special interests to fund his $300 million vanity project,’ Blumenthal said in a statement Tuesday. ‘Our measure is a direct response to Trump’s ballroom boondoggle. With commonsense reforms to how the federal government can use private donations, our legislation prevents President Trump and future presidents from using construction projects as vehicles for corruption and personal vanity.’ 

Meanwhile, the White House dismissed the measure and Democrats’ efforts to impose new restrictions on donations.

‘President Trump is making the White House beautiful and giving it the glory it deserves,’ White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Monday. ‘Only people with a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome would find a problem with that.’

Trump has initiated several renovation projects at the White House during his second term, including adding gold accents to the White House’s Oval Office and paving the Rose Garden. 

Former FBI Director James Comey hailed the federal judge who dismissed the federal indictment against him on Monday, saying the case against him was based on ‘malevolence and incompetence.’

Judge Cameron Currie dismissed the false statements charges against Comey in a Monday ruling, finding that they were brought by an unqualified U.S. attorney. President Donald Trump’s administration maintains that the attorney, Lindsay Halligan, was legally appointed and has indicated they plan to pursue further legal action.

‘I’m grateful that the court ended the case against me, which was a prosecution based on malevolence and incompetence, and a reflection of what the Department of Justice has become under Donald Trump, which is heartbreaking,’ Comey said, before thanking the lawyers who represented him in the case.

‘This case mattered to me personally, obviously, but it matters most because a message has to be sent. That the president of the United States cannot use the Department of Justice to target his political enemies. I don’t care what your politics are. You have to see that as fundamentally un-American and a threat to the rule of law that keeps all of us free,’ he continued.

Comey went on to say that he expects the Trump administration to continue coming after him despite the legal setback. He called on Americans to ‘stand up’ against the ‘fools who would frighten us,’ suggesting Trump is a ‘would-be tyrant.’

Currie’s ruling also threw out the DOJ’s case against New York Attorney General Letitia James, citing the same reason.

‘I conclude that the Attorney General’s attempt to install Ms. [Lindsey] Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid and that Ms. Halligan has been unlawfully serving in that role since September 22, 2025,’ Currie wrote.

Currie, a Clinton appointee based in South Carolina, was brought in from out of state to preside over proceedings about the question of Halligan’s authority because it presented a conflict for the Virginia judges. Comey’s and James’ challenges to Halligan’s appointment were consolidated because of their similarity.

Halligan acted alone in presenting charges to the grand juries shortly after Trump ousted the prior interim U.S. attorney, Erik Siebert, and urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to replace him with Halligan, a former White House aide and insurance lawyer. Bondi complied, but Currie found the interim U.S. attorney term had already expired under Siebert and that the Virginia judges were now responsible for appointing a temporary U.S. attorney to serve until Trump could get one confirmed in the Senate.

Trump has been unable to persuade the Senate to confirm several U.S. attorneys in blue states, leading the president and Bondi to sidestep the upper chamber at times to install Trump’s preferred appointees, such as Halligan. Currie’s decision comes after federal judges also disqualified appointees in California, New Jersey and Nevada.

Fox News’ Ashley Oliver contributed to this report.

The Justice Department asked a federal judge to unseal grand jury materials and lift protective orders in the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases after President Donald Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Signed by Trump on Nov. 19, 2025, the law requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to release all unclassified records, communications and investigative materials related to Epstein within 30 days.

The order allows limited redactions for victim privacy or to protect active investigations, but those must be narrowly tailored and justified in the Federal Register.

The department asked the court to expedite the unsealing of grand jury transcripts and exhibits and to modify orders that block public release of discovery materials.

It argued that Congress explicitly authorized disclosure under the law, overriding the secrecy of grand jury proceedings outlined in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The law, the DOJ said, also supersedes earlier court rulings that denied unsealing.

The judge in the Maxwell case set a briefing schedule Monday, ordering Maxwell to file her position by Dec. 3. He also directed prosecutors to notify victims, who may submit letters to the court by the same date.

The government has until Dec. 10 to respond, and the judge will rule afterward, though he has not set a specific date. The judge has acknowledged the law’s 30-day release deadline for Bondi.

The House voted 421-1 last Tuesday to release the files after months of pressure from Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., cast the lone ‘no’ vote, saying the bill ‘reveals and injures thousands of innocent people — witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc.’

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., supported the measure but voiced similar concerns. The Senate passed the bill hours later by unanimous consent.

Trump signed the law amid renewed scrutiny of his past association with Epstein after the Justice Department and FBI said in July they would not unseal related materials, citing the case’s closure.

The law directs the department to release all unclassified records related to Epstein and Maxwell, as well as files referencing individuals in Epstein’s prior cases, trafficking allegations, internal communications and details about his death.

Files containing victims’ names, child sexual abuse material, classified content or information that could affect active investigations may be withheld or redacted.

Bondi said Wednesday she would comply with the law, which requires the department to post the files online in a searchable format within 30 days.

The release has drawn strong interest from Trump supporters who have urged the department to disclose Epstein’s alleged ‘client list’ and details of his death.

While the documents are authentic, Epstein’s statements in the emails remain unverified. They do not allege wrongdoing by Trump and only reference him in passing.

Trump has not been formally accused of misconduct related to Epstein, and no law enforcement records link him to Epstein’s crimes.

Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. Maxwell was later convicted of similar offenses and is serving a 20-year sentence.

Fox News’ Diana Stancy and Emma Colton contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday aimed at bolstering U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives as it unveiled its new ‘Genesis Mission’ to accelerate AI use for scientific purposes. 

The ‘Genesis Mission’ will direct the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and their national labs to work with private companies to share federal data sets, advanced supercomputing capabilities, and scientific facilities. 

‘The private sector has launched artificial intelligence at huge scale, but with a little bit different focus – on language, on business, on processes, on consumer services,’ Secretary of Energy Chris Wright told reporters Monday. ‘What we’re doing here is just pivoting those efforts to focus on scientific discovery, engineering advancements. And to do that, you need the data sets that are contained across our national labs.’ 

Additionally, the executive order instructs the Department of Energy and national labs to create an integrated platform aimed at expediting scientific discovery, in an attempt to connect AI capability with scientists, engineers, technical staff, and the labs’ scientific instruments, according to a White House official.

Trump hinted an effort like this was in the works during the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum Wednesday in Washington, where he said the U.S. would work ‘to build the largest, most powerful, most innovative AI ecosystem in the world.’

The effort comes after Trump issued an AI policy document called ‘Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan’ in July. The document laid out a framework focused on accelerating AI innovation, ensuring the U.S. is the leader in international AI diplomacy and security, and using the private sector to help build up and operate AI infrastructure. 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is also currently considering other executive orders pertaining to AI, and more executive orders could be on the horizon. 

For example, Fox News Digital previously reported that the White House was gearing up an executive order instructing the Justice Department to sue states that adopt their own laws regulating AI. 

Trump appeared to address the initiative at the U.S-Saudi Investment Forum as well, claiming that a series of AI regulations imposed at the state level would prove a ‘disaster.’

‘And we are going to work it so that you’ll have a one approval process to not have to go through 50 states,’ Trump said. 

Fox News’ Amanda Macias and Dennis Collins contributed to this report. 

One Senate Republican proved that it’s still possible to bridge the chasm between the aisles after brokering an end to the longest government shutdown in history.

The 43-day impasse in Congress may have ended in the House, but it was in the Senate that Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., worked to build an old-fashioned bipartisan coalition to jump-start the stalled chamber.

It took several weeks, numerous conversations and reconstructing broken trust between Senate Republicans and Democrats to pull off what would become a bipartisan package to reopen the government.

And it was something that Britt, in an interview with Fox News Digital, contended she was uniquely positioned to do.

She was chief of staff for former Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and knew how the sausage was made in the upper chamber. She also had longstanding relationships with some of the key Democratic negotiators, like Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who ultimately joined most Republicans to reopen the government.

For Britt, who chairs the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee, the key to reopening the government was funding the government through spending bills.

‘I’m very grateful for those on the other side of the aisle that had the courage to step forward and say, you know, we’re not going to allow everyday Americans to suffer as a result of keeping this government closed,’ she said. ‘I do think what we saw was a lot of people that were listening to their political consultants instead of the actual constituency that they serve.’

‘Because clearly, I think a lot of people had lost sight of the fact that we were in this place because we hadn’t passed appropriations bills,’ Britt continued.

During the last session of Congress, the chambers were split. Republicans held a tenuous grip on the House while Schumer and Senate Democrats controlled the Senate. Many of the spending bills produced by the House were often partisan, while the bipartisan bills crafted in the Senate never made it to the floor.

‘If you look back over Senator Schumer’s tenure as leader and over the last two years, he didn’t even put one bill on the floor last year, which is what led us to this posture of a CR to start with,’ she said.

Britt believed that at least moving a trio of spending bills could perhaps unstick the gears in the Senate and get lawmakers closer to ending the shutdown. Whether that package of bills could end up attached to legislation to reopen the government, however, remained elusive.

While she lauded both Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., for their roles in ensuring the funding process actually worked, her role as de facto arbiter began roughly three weeks before the shutdown ended.

One of the main issues before and throughout the shutdown was a lack of trust that Senate Democrats had in Republicans, an issue that was reaffirmed when the GOP voted to claw back billions in congressionally approved funding earlier in the year.

That trust issue was further solidified due to a lack of commitments from Republicans to prevent the Trump administration from continuing to carve away at federal funding with impoundments and rescissions.

And the key moment that saw the wheels begin to move in the direction of reopening came when Senate Democrats blocked the Defense appropriations bill, which would have paid service members among a plethora of other things.

‘The question that I had for each of them, you know, why? This came out of committee in a bipartisan way, and it was clear, they wanted greater conversation around how we were planning on moving these things forward,’ she said.

It was from those informal talks that she leaned into speaking with more Democratic lawmakers to try and assuage their concerns about what would happen during and after the spending bills were passed. Those conversations brought her all the way to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on whether he would approve of the appropriations process moving forward.

‘Taking a cue from that is why I really leaned into conversations, both with people that I believed were gettable in finding a pathway forward on reopening the government and those who were not,’ she said. ‘You know, just saying, like, ‘Look, guys, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to work to fund these three bills. And if we do that, you know, here will be the ultimate result of it.’’

But, as with any successful legislation, there’s always a numbers game.

Not every Senate Republican was in favor of reopening the government, or at least the vehicle to do so, a point Britt reiterated often. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., had consistently voted against the House-passed bill until that point.

So that meant she needed to find the numbers elsewhere across the aisle. Shaheen, who was leading negotiations for Senate Democrats, largely had her numbers in check, but there was one more that needed an extra nudge: Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.

Over the course of 48 hours, the weekend of the penultimate vote to seal the deal in the Senate, Kaine went from being against the package to supporting it. Britt acted as a liaison to the White House, bringing Kaine’s demands that the administration roll back firings carried out during the shutdown and provide protections to federal workers, which the administration ultimately agreed to.

But ending the shutdown was the first hurdle. Lawmakers now have until Jan. 30, 2026, to fund the government. Britt said she would keep doing what she’s been doing: talking to the other side.

‘I am hopeful that people will remember what we’re supposed to be doing, and that is working to pass these bills,’ she said. ‘And I am sure that there will be challenges in front of us, but you know, having dialogue and working to break the logjam will be essential when it does occur to keep America moving.’

The Club for Growth says it has President Donald Trump’s back as the president pushes Republican-controlled states to redraw congressional maps in order to create more right-leaning districts to help defend the GOP’s fragile House majority in next year’s midterm elections.

‘We’re all in on helping Republicans do redistricting,’ David McIntosh, longtime president of the deep-pocketed and influential conservative group, said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.

McIntosh highlighted that the Club for Growth’s seven-figure efforts ‘give Republicans a better shot at winning those extra districts.’

The push by the Club is the latest example of its strong support for the president and his policies, just two years after the group worked to prevent Trump from winning the 2024 Republican presidential nomination amid a bitter feud.

Trump and his political team are aiming to pad the GOP’s razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in next year’s midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

Trump is trying to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections.

Texas was the first Republican-controlled state to pass rare but not-unheard-of mid-decade congressional redistricting, although a ruling by two federal judges threatens to overturn the redrawn map. Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have also drawn new maps as part of the president’s push.

Indiana, where McIntosh served three terms as a congressman 25 years ago, is the latest battlefield in the high-stakes redistricting showdown pitting Trump and Republicans versus Democrats to shape the 2026 midterm landscape in the fight for the House majority.

‘Democrats for years have gerrymandered and Republicans have not, and now it’s time so we can have Republicans in Congress for states like my home state of Indiana, step up to the plate, draw the district, so Republicans can be represented,’ McIntosh argued.

Trump has threatened to back primary challenges against Republican state lawmakers in Indiana who are reluctant to pass redistricting.

‘I was delighted to see President Trump calling them to do it. And you know, he said, we’re going to start endorsing against you if you don’t do what’s right for the Republican Party and for the nation. Club for Growth will be there to back up his endorsements,’ McIntosh said.

And the Club’s political arm, the Club for Growth Action super PAC, which is one of the biggest spenders in Republican primary showdowns thanks to the support of top-dollar conservative donors, is running ads to support the president’s push in right-leaning states across the country.

‘We’re way over seven figures when you put together all the different states. And what we’re doing is running ads. We have a new ad today that talks about the need for redistricting,’ McIntosh revealed. ‘We have a program that brings constituent calls into the Senate members, and so they get to hear directly from their voters that they want them to do this.’

It’s not just redistricting.

The Club is spending seven figures in next week’s hotly contested special election for a Republican-controlled vacant House seat in a solidly red congressional district in Tennessee.

‘Matt Epps is going to win,’ McIntosh said as he pointed to the Trump-endorsed GOP nominee in the race to succeed former Republican Rep. Mark Green, who resigned from office in June to take a private sector job.

‘It’s going to be a hard race. They all are, but he’s going to win that race because he’s more in line with Tennessee,’ McIntosh said of Van Epps. ‘I’m confident of him, and we’re going to help him do it.’

And looking ahead to next year’s midterms, McIntosh shared that the Club has ‘already started raising a $40 million fund to keep the House majority, and we’re about 25 million into it.’

‘I’m going to keep going, and then we’ll deploy that to make sure Republicans can keep the majority,’ he emphasized.

And as they’ve done in the past, the Club, which pushes a fiscally conservative agenda, including a focus on tax cuts and other economic issues, will once again play an influential role in GOP primaries.

‘We’re interviewing a lot of candidates now. We’re going to look for the strongest conservative candidate, somebody who wants to continue the economic progress, less regulation, lower taxes, balance the budget, the things that will make America great,’ McIntosh said. ‘And then when we endorse them, we’ll come in with our funding to pay for ads. We’ll recruit and help them raise money. It’s important we get the right Republicans in these primaries, and there are a lot of open seats.’

Democrats are energized coming out of their party’s sweeping victories earlier this month in the 2026 elections.

‘Democrats have racked up wins this year by running on affordability and lowering costs, and headed into 2026 our momentum continues to build,’ CJ Warnke, communications director for the Democrat-aligned House Majority PAC told Fox News Digital.

Warnke predicted, ‘As Trump’s poll numbers on the economy continue to plummet and voters see him prioritizing the elite over lowering prices, his broken promises will sink House Republicans. No Republican-held seat is safe, and HMP will do whatever it takes to win the House in 2026.’

McIntosh sees the 2025 elections as ‘a warning sign, a wake-up call for two things.’

‘One, we got to get our voters out, and that’s the job of the party and Club for Growth and groups like us,’ McIntosh noted.

But he added that ‘the party has to explain how our agenda makes life more affordable, how we can lower your insurance costs by forcing the insurance industry to tell you how much they’re charging. We can lower housing by getting rid of all sorts of regulation.’

McIntosh and the Club have had an up-and-down relationship with the president. They opposed Trump as he ran for the White House in 2016 before embracing him as an ally. In the 2022 cycle, Trump and the Club teamed up in some high-profile GOP primaries but clashed over combustible Senate nomination battles in Alabama, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The Club was on the outs with Trump as the 2024 Republican presidential nomination race got underway. Trump repeatedly criticized McIntosh and the Club, referring to them as ‘The Club for NO Growth,’ and claimed they were ‘an assemblage of political misfits, globalists, and losers.’

However, Trump and McIntosh made peace in early 2024, with Trump saying as he was wrapping up the GOP presidential nomination, that they were ‘back in love’ after the protracted falling out.

Asked about the Club’s relationship with Trump, McIntosh said, ‘We’re right there with the President, especially in these races … Club for Growth is very aligned with President Trump, and we’re especially in these contested races, we’re going to help him win.’

A federal judge threw out the indictments against James Comey and Letitia James on Monday, finding they were illegitimate because they were brought by an unqualified U.S. attorney.

Judge Cameron Currie dismissed the false statements charges against Comey and bank fraud charges against James without prejudice, meaning the charges could be brought again.

‘I conclude that the Attorney General’s attempt to install Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid and that Ms. Halligan has been unlawfully serving in that role since September 22, 2025,’ Currie wrote.

The Department of Justice could appeal the decision or attempt to bring the charges under a different U.S. attorney. Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOJ for comment.

The move to scrap two of the highest-profile criminal cases the DOJ has leveled against President Donald Trump’s political foes comes after the judge voiced skepticism at a recent hearing in Virginia about Lindsey Halligan’s ability to bring the charges as interim U.S. attorney.

Currie, a Clinton appointee based in South Carolina, was brought in from out of state to preside over proceedings about the question of Halligan’s authority because it presented a conflict for the Virginia judges. Comey’s and James’ challenges to Halligan’s appointment were consolidated because of their similarity.

Halligan acted alone in presenting charges to a grand jury days after Trump ousted the prior interim U.S. attorney, Erik Siebert, and replaced him with Halligan. At the same time, Trump urged Attorney General Pam Bondi in a social media post to act quickly to indict Comey, a call that came as the statutes of limitations in his case was about to lapse. Halligan, who had no prior prosecutorial experience when she took over one of the most high-profile federal court districts in the country, was the lone lawyer to present the cases to the grand jury and sign the indictments. No prosecutors from Virginia joined in on the case.

The DOJ has since put its full backing behind Halligan. Bondi attempted to ratify and then re-ratify the indictments after the fact, a move Currie suggested would not have been necessary if Halligan were a valid appointee.

DOJ attorney Henry Whitaker had argued during the hearing that the motions to dismiss Comey’s and James’ cases involved ‘at best a paperwork error.’

James’ attorney Abbe Lowell said Halligan was a ‘private person’ when she entered the grand jury rooms and completely unauthorized to be in them. Currie agreed, saying in her decision that retroactively validating Halligan and her actions would be unheard of.

‘The implications of a contrary conclusion are extraordinary,’ Currie wrote. ‘It would mean the Government could send any private citizen off the street — attorney or not — into the grand jury room to secure an indictment so long as the Attorney General gives her approval after the fact. That cannot be the law.’

The campaign firm that helped Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani spread his message in New York City is now turning its focus to vulnerable Republicans across the country.

Among other races, the firm has set its sights on defeating two vulnerable House Republicans in Pennsylvania: Reps. Rob Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie.

Fight Agency — a six-man crew with experience in over 300 winning elections — focuses on many of the issues Mamdani made a fixture of his campaign, like affordability and housing.

‘If you’re doing everything right but finding it harder and harder to get by, you’re not alone. We know a simple truth about American life: the economy is not delivering enough for enough people. If the next forty years are like the last forty years, the American middle class will disappear,’ the firm states on its website.

The balance of power in the House of Representatives is in a precarious position ahead of the 2026 midterms. With Republicans holding just a three-seat majority, even one or two key losses for Republicans could cut the legs out from under the GOP’s control over the chamber. Pennsylvania — home to both Bresnahan and Mackenzie — also makes up a key battleground state with several competitive districts. According to the Cook Political Report, the state has five competitive Republican-held districts all projected to be a five-point contest or less.

In that struggle, the Fight Agency’s leaders have come to the support of Paige Cognetti, a former mayor of Scranton, Pa., who is running to unseat Bresnahan. Bresnahan, a freshman lawmaker, won election to Congress in 2024 by just 1.6 percentage points.

‘We can stand tall against a Washington that takes advantage of working people and makes it work for us,’ Cognetti said in her launch video.

Rebecca Katz, the Fight Agency’s strategist for the election of Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., reposted Cognetti’s campaign ad in a post to X.

‘If you can, pls chip in a few bucks and let’s get someone who cares about people in Congress,’ Rebecca Katz wrote. 

Cognetti, the former mayor, has also highlighted the firm’s other work, saying she was ‘proud to know these folks’ in a repost showcasing the agency’s past campaigns.

Like in Cognetti’s campaign, the Fight Agency team is also supporting Bob Brooks and his race against Republican incumbent Ryan Mackenzie in Pennsylvania. Mackenzie won election by a single percentage point in the last cycle.

‘The biggest problem we face is a Washington that burns working people,’ Brooks said in his campaign launch video. ‘I’m running for Congress in one of the closest districts to take on the billionaires and big corporations holding us back.’ 

Morris Katz, the firm’s lead on the Mamdani campaign, reposted Cognetti’s launch video alongside Fight Agency’s main account. Brooks has returned the favor, reposting Fight Agency’s productions in a Maine Senate race. 

With Mamdani, the firm helped produce lighthearted content with a brighter, more comedic edge. In one video, the firm mimicked the style of ‘The Bachelor,’ the TV romance show known for its match-making drama.

‘New York, will you accept this rose?’ Mamdani asked in the video.

In the past, the firm has supported Democrat candidates away from the mainstream of the party, gravitating towards either more progressive candidates or candidates with an unconventional streak.

Besides Mamdani, some of Fight Agency’s previous partners include Sen. Bernie Sanders,’ I-Vt., bid for president and Sen. John Fetterman’s 2021 campaign. 

Today, some of their more high-profile current candidates include Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner and Nebraska Senate hopeful Dan Osborn, both featured prominently on the firm’s website.

Fight Agency did not respond to a request for comment.