A federal judge criticized the Justice Department for allegedly being too quick to indict in high-profile cases on Wednesday.

Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick of the Eastern District of Virginia made the comments during a brief hearing regarding the case against former FBI Director James Comey.

‘Right now, we are in a bit of a feeling of indict first, investigate later,’ Fitzpatrick said in the hearing, which lasted less than an hour.

Fitzpatrick questioned prosecutors about their handling of data acquired from a number of search warrants between 2019 and 2020, information which is now being used in Comey’s case. The judge pressed prosecutors on whether they may have viewed information that may be protected by attorney-client privilege.

Fitzpatrick also noted the size of the trove of documents, saying Comey’s defense team has been placed at a disadvantage with a limited time to view the set.

‘The government has had this for five and a half years … this is an unfair burden the government is placing on the defense, but I don’t see another path forward,’ the judge said.

Comey’s team has sought to have his case dismissed, arguing he is the victim of selective prosecution by President Donald Trump.

The DOJ denied in a 48-page filing that Trump’s September Truth Social post calling on U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute prominent political adversaries, including Comey, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and New York Attorney General Letitia James, had any influence on the decision to bring charges.

‘These posts reflect the President’s view that the defendant has committed crimes that should be met with prosecution. They may even suggest that the President disfavors the defendant. But they are not direct evidence of a vindictive motive,’ prosecutors argued.

‘The defendant spins a tale that requires leaps of logic and a big dose of cynicism, then he calls the President’s post a direct admission,’ they continued. ‘There is no direct admission of discriminatory purpose. To the contrary, the only direct admission from the President is that DOJ officials decided whether to prosecute, not him.’

Fox News’ Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.

Leaders of a 189-member group that acts as the House GOP’s de facto conservative think tank are formally endorsing a new short-term federal funding bill.

With just over two weeks until the deadline for Republicans’ initial Nov. 21 plan and the threat of more government shutdown chaos, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) Steering Committee is calling for an extension into ‘at least’ January 2026.

‘Democrats are responsible for the longest government shutdown in U.S. history — paralyzing our country and deepening the healthcare crisis sparked by Obamacare,’ reads a statement first obtained by Fox News Digital.

‘House conservatives support a return to regular order accomplished only by a continuing resolution that funds the government at least into January 2026.’

A debate is already brewing within the GOP about how long another extension should last, with some conservatives even demanding a bill carrying last year’s federal spending levels through at least November 2026.

The House passed a short-term measure called a continuing resolution (CR) on Sept. 19, aimed at extending fiscal year (FY) 2025 funding levels for seven weeks to give lawmakers more time to strike a deal on FY 2026 federal spending.

But progress has been stalled in the Senate for weeks, where Democrats are demanding any spending bill be paired with an extension of COVID-19 pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of this year.

Senate Majority Leader Thune, R-S.D., has floated the idea of holding a vote on extending the subsidies if Democrats agree to Republicans’ CR, which is currently free of partisan policy riders.

It’s not clear if there’s an appetite for such a vote in the House, RSC leaders’ new statement suggests.

‘We are also committed to delivering a healthcare system that is truly accessible, affordable, and spurs innovation. Congress should reject any extension of the wasteful COVID-era subsidies that fuel fraud and drive up costs,’ they said.

The latest position by the RSC, led by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, is likely an accurate indication of where most House Republicans’ feelings on both the CR and the Obamacare subsidies are.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., signaled support for a January CR on a private call with House GOP lawmakers on Tuesday, Fox News Digital was told earlier this week.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital last month that he and others on his committee could support an extension into January.

But both issues are likely to see debate within the House GOP, not to mention the chamber as a whole.

Just over a dozen Republicans led by Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., are supportive of extending the enhanced Obamacare subsidies by a year as a cushion to give the GOP more time to reform the flawed U.S. healthcare system.

Without it, some members of that coalition have argued, millions of Americans could be faced with a fiscal cliff leaving them to pay significantly more per month for their healthcare.

And on the CR debate, the House Freedom Caucus led by Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., recently released a statement calling for a CR that extends at least into November 2026.

Their reasoning is that such a measure is the most effective way of keeping federal spending low and avoids another messy government funding fight until after the midterm elections.

But appropriators are against such a move, arguing that Congress must follow its constitutional duty in setting a yearly budget rather than relying on spending levels first passed under former President Joe Biden for another year.

It’s also not clear that Democrats, at least several of whom are needed to break a filibuster in the Senate, would accept a year-long CR.

Meanwhile, the government shutdown is in its 37th day, already having made history as the longest fiscal standoff in U.S. history.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sharply diverged from his Senate counterpart on Thursday as the upper chamber continues to negotiate a way out of the government shutdown.

Johnson said he would not commit to holding a vote on extending COVID-19 pandemic-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of this year without congressional action.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., however, had been floating a vote on such an extension in exchange for Democrats voting to end the shutdown — which is now in its 37th day.

‘Leader Thune has bent over backwards. He’s offered them a vote. You know what they told him in response? ‘No, we need you to guarantee the outcome of that vote.’ Well, that’s ridiculous,’ Johnson said when asked about holding such a vote by a guaranteed date in the House if the deal succeeds in breaking the logjam.

When pressed again on a vote, he said, ‘No, because we did our job, and I’m not part of the negotiation.’

‘The House did its job on Sept. 19. I’m not promising anybody anything. I’m going to let this process play out,’ Johnson said.

The issue of enhanced Obamacare subsidies has been a matter of debate within the GOP, with some Republicans in more moderate districts calling for at least a year-long extension to give lawmakers time to create a new healthcare deal in its place.

But House conservatives are rejecting any such extension out of hand. Fox News Digital first reported that leaders of the 189-member Republican Study Committee issued an official position earlier Thursday demanding the credits not be extended.

It’s been a key ask for Democrats, however, that such an extension be paired with any federal funding bill before they agree to help end the shutdown.

Senate Democrats are huddling on Thursday afternoon to discuss what they could and could not accept out of a deal to end the government shutdown.

There are a dozen in the caucus who have been meeting to find a way out of the shutdown, but following Democrats’ Tuesday night election sweep, many in their caucus feel emboldened that their shutdown strategy is working and don’t want to let up yet.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said he believed Tuesday’s election was ‘having an impact’ on the caucus.

‘It would be very strange for the American people to weigh in, in support of Democrats, standing up and fighting for them, and then within days, for us to surrender without having achieved any of the things that we’ve been fighting for,’ Sen. Chris Murphy said.

The majority of the caucus demands a guarantee on a deal rather than the promise of a process, given that a proposal to extend the expiring subsidies from Democrats without major reforms to the program would likely fail in the Republican-controlled chamber.

But Thune has remained adamant that he can’t promise anything more than a vote and can’t predict an outcome.

‘I made this very clear to them, I can’t guarantee them an outcome,’ Thune said. ‘I can guarantee them a process, and they can litigate the issue, get the vote on the floor, and presumably they have some way of getting a vote in the House at some point, but I can’t speak for the House.’

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday his country will draw up plans to conduct nuclear tests after President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would do the same last week.

The Kremlin leader said he has asked relevant departments to ‘submit coordinated proposals regarding the possible commencement of work to prepare for nuclear weapons testing.’

‘Russia has always strictly adhered and continues to adhere to its obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), and we have no plans to deviate from these commitments,’ Putin said at a meeting of the Russian national security council.

The treaty was signed but never ratified by the U.S.

If the U.S. or other signatories of the treaty begin nuclear testing, ‘Russia would also have to take appropriate and proportionate responsive measures,’ Putin added.

In the past week, Trump has both announced the U.S. will reignite nuclear testing and suggested he is working on a deal to denuclearize with Russia and China.

‘We redid our nuclear — we’re the number one nuclear power, which I hate to admit, because it’s so horrible,’ Trump said during a speech at the American Business Forum in Miami.

‘Russia’s second. China’s a distant third, but they’ll catch us within four or five years,’ he added. ‘We’re maybe working on a plan to denuclearize, the three of us. We’ll see if that works.’

Last week, Trump announced on Truth Social, ‘because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.’

The War Department handles the testing of nuclear-capable weapons, while the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) would be responsible for testing explosives.

Some 1400 workers, 80% of the NNSA, are currently on furlough due to the government shutdown.

The U.S. regularly tests nuclear-capable vehicles, missiles and rockets, but the U.S. has not conducted an explosive nuclear test since 1992. Russia’s last known test was in 1990.

Russia last week did claim to test two delivery vehicles: an undersea torpedo known as Poseidon and a nuclear-powered cruise missile.

The U.S. conducted a nuclear-capable weapon test on Wednesday, launching the intercontinental ballistic missile Minuteman III into the air from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It landed 4,200 miles away at a U.S. test site in the Marshall Islands.

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president who holds a top post on its security council, wrote on X that ‘No one knows what Trump meant about ‘nuclear testing’,’ adding, ‘he probably doesn’t himself.’

‘But he’s the president of the United States. And the consequences of such words are inescapable: Russia will be forced to assess the expediency of conducting full-fledged nuclear tests itself,’ Medvedev added.

Russia’s defense minister, Andrey Belousov, said Wednesday that he believes the U.S. in general is ‘actively increasing its strategic offensive capabilities.’

‘We must, of course, focus not only — or even primarily — on statements and remarks made by American politicians and officials, but above all on the actual actions of the United States of America.’

The battle for control of the House is set to kick into high gear with the 2025 elections in the rearview mirror, and both sides are optimistic about their chances after Tuesday night.

Democrats are flying high after their victories in key elections in Virginia, California and New Jersey, celebrating those wins as a decisive rejection of President Donald Trump’s administration. But Republicans are still confident in their chances of keeping the House next year and are poised to use the far-left’s success in New York City as a nationwide political cudgel.

‘Yesterday was a big night for America and a big night for the Democratic Party, as candidates across the country, up and down the ballot, decisively defeated MAGA Republicans in an extraordinary rejection of the extremism that the American people have been experiencing since Day 1 of Donald Trump’s presidency,’ House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said at a press conference Wednesday.

A memo circulated by the Jeffries-aligned House Majority PAC and obtained by Fox News Digital exuded confidence: ‘With less than one year until Election Day, Democrats remain poised to take back the House in 2026 and elect Leader Hakeem Jeffries as the next Speaker.’

But Jeffries’ counterpart, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had a very different interpretation.

‘There’s no surprises. What happened last night was blue states and blue cities voted blue. We all saw that coming, and no one should read too much into last night’s election results. Off-year elections are not indicative of what’s to come,’ Johnson said at his own news conference. ‘I think that when we go into next year in the midterms, we’re very bullish about the outcome. We have an extraordinary record to run on.’

A House GOP campaign operative who spoke with Fox News Digital was also confident about Republicans’ ability to keep the majority next November, arguing the key lies in voter turnout.

‘I think we actually had a good turnout night. They just had a monster one,’ the GOP operative said of New Jersey, where Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill defeated Republican Jack Ciattarelli.

‘They had midterm turnout in an off-year [governor] race. And so I think it comes down to us continuing to do the work to show that we need people to show up when the president is not on the ballot.’

They also dismissed Democrats’ inroads with Hispanic and Latino voters in New Jersey as recoverable for the GOP.

‘I think it goes back to, across-the-board, getting our voters to show up,’ the GOP operative said. ‘With Hispanic voters specifically, keep putting in the work, and we can’t take them for granted… it’s felt like, in some of those races, that they were not making the attempt to talk to them on our side.’

On the other side, an operative familiar with House Democrat campaigns said they’re taking lessons from a renewed surge of enthusiasm by two groups — Hispanic voters and women.

And while acknowledging the groups were not monolithic, the Democratic operative said most Americans were all focused on the same issue: cost of living.

‘I think it’s just like a very helpful reminder to double down on the issues that people care about most. Poll after poll, public and private, is telling you that Americans in any district care most about the cost of living and rising costs and being able to afford things,’ they said. ‘I think those are the solutions that people want to hear, and we should be proactive in speaking to them.’

The Democratic operative argued that issue drove the successes of Sherrill and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who defeated GOP Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in Virginia and became a main facet of House Democrats’ most contentious campaigns.

Another issue being viewed in opposing lights by both sides is the victory of socialist Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral race.

‘The biggest takeaway I have is that not a day should go by when a Republican candidate, a member on the trail, a member of leadership, whoever, whatever branch they’re in, whether state, local, federal, House, Senate, governors, whatever, should talk about Zohran Mamdani,’ the GOP operative said. ‘I think he is the party now, frankly.’

The Democratic source said, ‘We just kind of saw a proof point that it’s not effective, because they were trying this in races across the country here, and it didn’t work.’

They pointed to Republicans’ attempts to tie Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to vulnerable Democrats nationally after her upset victory in 2018.

‘It just doesn’t work,’ they said. ‘Somebody in the Virginia Beach area of the country does not give a s— about who the mayor of New York City is. They care about the cost of living.’