The Justice Department on Monday appealed the dismissal of its criminal cases against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, making good on its vow to revive both cases despite what appear to be significant legal and procedural hurdles.

Lawyers for the Trump administration appealed both cases Monday to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Va. 

‘The power to appoint an interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 546 during the current vacancy lies with the district court until a U.S. Attorney is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate,’ the Justice Department said in its appeal.

Both appeals challenge a ruling handed down by U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie in November, which found that former Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan was illegally appointed to her role as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. 

Because Halligan was unlawfully appointed — and was the sole prosecutor who secured the indictments — Currie ruled that the indictments were invalid and dismissed both cases without prejudice.

‘Ms. Halligan has been unlawfully serving in that role since September 22, 2025,’ Currie said in an opinion filed in both cases. 

‘All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment’ as a result, he said, ‘constitute unlawful exercises of executive power and must be set aside.’

Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed then to ‘immediately’ appeal the decision, and FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI and Justice Department are exploring other options to keep the case against Comey alive.

James was charged with two counts of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution during her 2020 purchase of a home in Norfolk, Virginia. 

Comey was charged with making false statements to Congress and for obstruction related to his testimony in September 2020. 

Currie dismissed Comey’s case and James’ case ‘without prejudice’ – a detail that left the door open for the government to secure new indictments.

Prosecutors ultimately attempted, without success, to re-indict both Comey and James, prompting new questions about the strength of the case.

Federal prosecutors twice tried and failed to secure a new indictment against James from grand juries in Norfolk and then in Alexandria. Neither effort was successful.

In Comey’s case, a separate judge ordered prosecutors to erase certain evidence – including emails and data – that had played a central role in the Justice Department’s case.

Comey’s case also raises statute-of-limitations concerns, as both charges carried five-year limits that expired Sept. 30 – just three days after Bondi installed Halligan at the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

It is unclear whether the judge’s order ‘resets the clock’ on the statute of limitations under a federal law, as Trump’s allies have argued it should. 

Under the same law, a dismissal by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals would trigger a 60-day window for the Trump administration to re-indict Comey.

The Justice Department notified the lower court Monday that it had filed both requests to the Richmond-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. 

China has reportedly loaded more than 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles into three newly constructed silo fields near its border with Mongolia and shows little interest in arms control talks, according to a draft Pentagon report seen by Reuters.

The assessment underscores Beijing’s accelerating military buildup, with the report saying China is expanding and modernizing its nuclear forces faster than any other nuclear-armed power. Chinese officials have repeatedly dismissed such findings as attempts to ‘smear and defame China and deliberately mislead the international community.’

The Pentagon declined to comment when contacted by Fox News Digital about the Reuters report.

Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump said he may pursue denuclearization discussions with China and Russia. The Pentagon report, however, concluded that Beijing does not appear inclined to engage.

‘We continue to see no appetite from Beijing for pursuing such measures or more comprehensive arms control discussions,’ the report said.

According to the assessment, China has likely loaded more than 100 solid-fueled DF-31 intercontinental ballistic missiles into silo fields near the Mongolian border. While the Pentagon had previously disclosed the existence of the silo fields, it had not publicly estimated how many missiles had been placed inside them.

China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The report did not identify potential targets for the newly loaded missiles and could change before it is formally submitted to Congress, U.S. officials said.

China’s nuclear warhead stockpile remained in the low 600s in 2024, reflecting what the report described as a slower production rate compared to previous years. Still, Beijing is on track to exceed 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.

China says it adheres to a nuclear strategy of self-defense and maintains a no-first-use policy. But analysts say Beijing’s public messaging increasingly contradicts that restraint.

‘For a country that still advocates a policy of ‘no-first use,’ China has become increasingly comfortable showcasing its nuclear arsenal, including parading its nuclear triad together for the first time in September,’ said Jack Burnham, a senior research analyst in the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Burnham said Beijing’s rejection of arms control talks reflects the pace of its weapons construction. ‘China has no interest in locking in a long-term strategic disadvantage, and every intention of building an arsenal on par with its perceived place in the world, alongside and potentially eventually ahead of the United States,’ he said.

The report also warned that China expects to be able to fight and win a war over Taiwan by the end of 2027. Beijing claims the self-governed island as its own territory and has never ruled out the use of force.

China is refining options to seize Taiwan by ‘brute force,’ including long-range strikes up to 2,000 nautical miles from the mainland that could disrupt U.S. military operations in the Asia-Pacific, the report said.

The findings come as the 2010 New START treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, approaches expiration. The treaty limits both sides to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads.

‘What is surprising is that China has now loaded only about 100 of the silos it has built recently,’ said Gordon Chang. ‘That’s an indication money is tight in the People’s Liberation Army.’

Chang warned against extending New START without Beijing’s participation. ‘This is no time for the U.S. to agree to an extension of the New START Treaty with Russia,’ he said. ‘Russia and China are de-facto allies, and they are ganging up on America. Without China in a deal — Beijing has flatly rejected every nuclear arms-control initiative of the U.S. —no treaty can be in America’s interest.’

Reuters contributed to this report.

The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) internal watchdog has confirmed that the agency’s publicly reported phone service data was accurate and that performance improved during fiscal year 2025, according to a new audit completed after Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questioned whether the figures could be trusted.

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reviewed the SSA’s national 800-number telephone metrics and found that the data the agency released to the public was correct, and that overall service improved during fiscal year 2025, according to a draft audit report provided to agency leadership ahead of public release. The report did not issue any recommendations to the agency.

The review was initiated after Warren expressed concerns in June about long wait times and the reliability of SSA’s phone performance data. She formally requested an audit on July 24, prompting SSA Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano, who serves under President Donald Trump, to agree to an independent review by the watchdog.

The audit found that SSA served 68 million callers during fiscal year 2025, either through live agents or automated systems, a 65% increase from the prior year. Average wait times fluctuated early in the year but improved steadily, according to the audit, ending the fiscal year at roughly seven minutes in September after peaking at about 30 minutes in January.

The metric cited by the agency, known as Average Speed of Answer, measures only the time callers actively wait on hold before speaking to an employee and does not include time spent waiting for callbacks.

‘Last year, people waited 40 minutes on the phone, and now they’re in single digits. We’re doing twice as many calls,’ Bisignano said.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Bisignano said the audit confirmed what agency leadership had been reporting publicly about improvements in service levels.

‘Senator Warren was completely wrong in everything that she was saying, and it’s now been proven out,’ Bisignano said, citing the watchdog’s finding that SSA’s publicly reported telephone metrics were calculated accurately.

Bisignano said he welcomed the audit and was confident the data would withstand independent scrutiny.

The inspector general’s report concluded that SSA’s telephone performance improved during fiscal year 2025 largely because of operational changes, including the rollout of a new cloud-based telecommunications platform, expanded automation and staffing realignments. The platform, implemented in August 2024, allowed SSA to increase call capacity, expand self-service options and monitor performance in real time, according to the report.

The watchdog also confirmed that SSA’s internal data-verification process ensured accuracy by comparing raw data with reported metrics and working with vendors to resolve any discrepancies. The audit found no evidence that the agency misrepresented its national 800-number performance.

Bisignano said improvements were driven by a combination of technology, process changes and workforce adjustments.

The report explains that SSA experienced especially high call volumes between January and March 2025 due to Medicare and tax-related questions, as well as the implementation of the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023, which affected more than 3.2 million beneficiaries. 

Despite the surge, the agency reduced average wait times over the course of the year.

The audit also found that about 25 million calls during fiscal year 2025 ended without callers receiving service, either because callers disconnected, did not answer callback attempts or encountered busy signals. Those calls were not included in the agency’s wait-time metrics.

Automation played a growing role in absorbing the surge. According to the audit, automated systems handled an average of nearly 2.9 million calls per month in fiscal year 2025, up from about 300,000 per month the year before. Automated services allowed callers to complete common tasks without speaking to a live agent, reducing pressure on phone lines.

The inspector general also reviewed how SSA calculates its Average Speed of Answer metric, which measures the time callers actively wait on hold before speaking to an employee. The audit clarified that callers who accept a callback are counted as having zero active wait time, a methodology that reduces the average but does not include the time callers wait to receive callbacks.

Bisignano said transparency about how the numbers are calculated is essential.

‘We figured out how to leverage technology, process engineering, and human capital,’ he said.

Staffing changes also contributed to the turnaround. Early in fiscal year 2025, the number of employees available to answer national 800-number calls declined by about 13%. By July, SSA began assigning roughly 1,000 field office employees each day to help handle national call volume. The audit found that this coincided with sharp improvements in wait times, with Average Speed of Answer dropping from about 13 minutes in June to roughly 7.5 minutes in July.

The audit did not evaluate service levels or wait times at local Social Security field offices.

Beyond wait times, the audit found that service quality remained high. About 87% of callers who responded to post-call surveys said their issue was resolved on the first contact. The survey results reflect feedback from callers who reached an SSA employee and do not include callers who only used automated services.

Bisignano said the improvements matter most for seniors and beneficiaries who rely on Social Security services.

‘We’re investing in Social Security and servicing the American public at a level they’ve never been serviced before,’ he said. ‘We’ll meet you where you want to be met: on the phone, in the field offices or on the web.’

He added that people who haven’t called the agency recently may be surprised by how much has changed.

‘What would surprise them the most is how quickly they can get their phone call answered,’ he said.

Looking ahead, Bisignano said the agency plans to continue expanding digital services and reducing backlogs, including in disability claims, while maintaining accountability through ongoing oversight.

‘Expect us to always have double-digit improvements in every metric we have,’ he said. ‘This is just the beginning.’

The OIG report in full can be read here.

‘The bottom line is that Donald Trump’s Social Security chief lied about call wait times to cover up his customer service mess,’ Sen. Warren said in an email to Fox News Digital. ‘This new watchdog report reveals that true wait times were more than three times higher than what Commissioner Bisignano claimed, and tens of millions of callers were simply unable to get help on the phone at all.’

A straw poll taken at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest this weekend revealed that conservatives are, as a spokesman described, ‘all in’ for Vice President JD Vance running for president in 2028. 

Asked who they would like to see as the Republican presidential nominee in 2028, the vast majority of respondents, 84.2%, answered Vice President JD Vance. Far behind Vance was Rubio at 4.8% and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 2.9%.

Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for TPUSA, told Fox News Digital that the poll portrays a clear picture of the state of the conservative movement. 

From the responses, Kolvet said it is clear that ‘the movement is all-in for JD Vance in 2028, winning the most support in the history of our poll.’

Kolvet explained,’There are bright dividing lines in the conservative movement right now, so we wanted to get clarity on where the base is on these hot-button issues in Turning Point Action’s official AmericaFest 2025 straw poll.’ 

‘We wanted to get a real read on where the base is at after Charlie’s assassination, and a few things really jump off the page,’ he said. 

The most popular Trump administration accomplishment amongst conference attendees was securing the border, with nearly 60% of respondents answering this, while 22.2% of respondents answered deportations.

Conference attendees also shared that winning the midterms and radical Islam are among their top concerns.

A wide margin believed that the conservative movement’s top priority in 2026 should be winning the midterms. Per the poll, 63.9% of AmFest attendees believed the conservative movement should be prioritizing winning the midterms, which would preserve Republicans’ majorities in the House and Senate.

The next highest priority, according to attendees, was voter integrity/voter ID at 9.3%. Other priorities were the affordability crisis at 8.1%, mass deportations at 5.3% and accountability for the deep state/lawfare at 4.2%.

Asked what the biggest threat is facing America, 31,008 responded ‘radical Islam.’ In close second was socialism and Marxism at 30,387. Third was mass migration, with 28,223 saying that is the greatest threat to America, and fourth was the economy and affordability at 27,315.

Related to mass migration, 89.5% of poll respondents said they would support a moratorium on new immigration into the United States.

Attendees were also questioned on their feelings about Israel. Over half, 53.4 percent, said they see Israel as ‘one ally out of many,’ while a third said they see Israel as America’s ‘top ally’ and 13.3 percent said they believe Israel is ‘not an ally.’ 

The poll also revealed what members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet are most popular and unpopular amongst the conference’s heavily conservative audience.

According to the poll, which was taken by Big Data Poll, the Trump Cabinet member with the strongest job performance approval rating amongst AmFest attendees is Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, as 83.3% of conference attendees voiced they strongly approve of him.

A total of 94.7% of AmFest attendees said they either strongly or somewhat approve of Hegseth.

As War secretary, Hegseth has been one of the most vocal Trump Cabinet members, with such actions as changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, expunging DEI from the military and targeting cartel drug boats in the Caribbean.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. received similarly high approval ratings from the AmFest attendees at 76.6% and 80.8%, respectively. Kennedy received the highest overall approval rating from AmFest attendees, with 96.8% saying they either strongly or somewhat approve of him.

The Cabinet member with the highest disapproval rating was U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom 13.4% of attendees said they strongly disapprove of and 15.6% said they somewhat disapprove. Despite this, most poll participants, 64.8%, still said they either strongly or somewhat approve of Bondi’s job performance in the Trump administration.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, another highly vocal and prominent Trump Cabinet member who has spearheaded the administration’s deportations and border security efforts, received broad approval with 90.1% of participants saying they either strongly or somewhat approve of her job performance.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy both received approval ratings in the 80s.

Poll participants had less to say about Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collin, with between 28 and 39% of respondents saying they were unsure about their job performance.

According to the poll, 88.3% of respondents self-identified as Republican and 94.7% identified as conservative.

Commenting on the poll, Kolvet said that conservatives ‘see Israel as an important ally of the United States despite so much chatter to the contrary’ and ‘they love the job that Secretaries Hegseth, Rubio, and RFK Jr. are doing, but they harbor skepticism about the DOJ.’ 

‘Above all,’ Kolvet said that conservatives ‘are laser focused on winning the midterms and fixing mass migration, which they clearly see as connected to the rise of radical Islam, socialism, and crime.’ 

He added that ‘it’s clear that immigration remains the key to energizing the base ahead of the midterms.’ 

Former President Bill Clinton’s spokesman is calling on the Department of Justice to release any remaining documents related to the former president and Jeffrey Epstein following the DOJ’s document release Friday. 

‘We call on President Trump to direct Attorney General Bondi to immediately release any remaining materials referring to, mentioning, or containing a photograph of Bill Clinton,’ a statement from Clinton spokesman Angel Ureña on Monday reads. 

‘This includes, without limitation, any records that may exist and are subject to disclosure under the Act (Public Law 119–38 enacted Nov. 19, 2025), including grand jury transcripts, interview notes, photographs, and findings by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (as referenced under oath to Congress by President Trump’s first-term Attorney General),’ it continued. 

Clinton’s office said that the DOJ’s partial release of Epstein-related documents Friday allegedly shows ‘someone or something is being protected.’ President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan law in November that required the Department of Justice to release all ‘unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials’ within 30 days of Trump’s signature. 

‘The Epstein Files Transparency Act imposes a clear legal duty on the U.S. Department of Justice to produce the full and complete record the public demands and deserves,’ Ureña continued.

‘However, what the Department of Justice has released so far, and the manner in which it did so, makes one thing clear: someone or something is being protected. We do not know whom, what or why. But we do know this: We need no such protection.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ Monday afternoon regarding the new statement from Ureña. 

The Friday Epstein drop included a handful of photos of Clinton, including him swimming shirtless, posing with music icons such as Michael Jackson, and other redacted photos showing the former president with unidentifiable individuals. 

When asked about the photos when they initially dropped, Ureña directed Fox Digital to a statement he posted to X.

‘The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton,’ he wrote Friday. ‘This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they’ll try and hide forever. So they can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be. Even Susie Wiles said Donald Trump was wrong about Bill Clinton.’

Ureña said there are ‘two types of people’ involved in the Epstein scandal: those who did not know of Epstein’s crimes and cut him out of their lives upon his conviction and a second group of people who ‘continued relationships with him after’ his crimes came to light.

‘We’re in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that,’ the Clinton spokesman continued. ‘Everyone, especially MAGA, expects answers, not scapegoats.’ 

Files that included victims’ names, child sex abuse materials, classified materials or other materials that could threaten an active investigation were allowed to be withheld or redacted by the DOJ, per the transparency law. 

The Trump DOJ released thousands of files related to the Epstein investigations throughout the years, with the department expected to release additional documents in the coming days. Democrats have slammed the DOJ and Trump over the slow release of the documents following the president signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law. 

‘The law Congress passed is crystal clear: release the Epstein files in full so Americans can see the truth,’ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schummer said in a press release Monday, teeing up litigation against the administration over the release. ‘Instead, the Trump Department of Justice dumped redactions and withheld the evidence — that breaks the law. Today, I am introducing a resolution to force the Senate to take legal action and compel this administration to comply.’

Epstein was a well-connected financier with a lengthy Rolodex of billionaires and celebrities who floated in and out of his orbit across the years. He was convicted of sex trafficking minors in 2008 and served just more than one year of incarceration, which also included a controversial work-release arrangement under a plea agreement. 

He was arrested again in 2019 on charges of sex trafficking before he was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell by suicide. 

MAGA supporters have claimed that Epstein kept an alleged ‘client list’ of high-profile names that he used to blackmail individuals in a web of sex trafficking and crimes. The Department of Justice announced over the summer, however, that there was ‘no incriminating ‘client list” of prominent individuals involved in an alleged sex trafficking scheme, nor that Epstein blackmailed anyone on such list. 

The DOJ previously reported that the evidence shows Epstein did in fact commit suicide, which contradicted speculation on social media that Epstein was murdered in his jail cell in 2019, which set off criticisms among Trump supporters to release further documents on the case, with Democrats joining those calls while invoking questions about Trump’s relationship with Epstein. 

Trump has slammed the calls as part of a ‘Democrat hoax’ while defending that he ‘threw him out’ of Mar-a-Lago after he ‘stole’ employees from the private club in his falling out with Epstein in the 2000s.

Fox News Digital reached out the Department of Justice Monday afternoon regarding Urena’s latest statement, but did not immediately receive a reply.