Officials from the first Trump administration are alleging they received notices from Google shortly before they returned to office that they were being probed by the FBI under the Biden administration and the web giant was unable to tell them because of a court order. 

Dan Scavino, who is now White House Deputy Chief of Staff and assistant to the president, described the matter as ‘Biden lawfare’ kicking in after he ‘patriotically and proudly’ served during Trump’s first term. 

‘Google received and responded to a legal process issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation compelling the release of information related to your Google account. A court order previously prohibited Google from notifying you of the legal process…’ Scavino shared on X from an email he said he received from Google five weeks before Trump returned to the White House. 

‘I’ve never shared this — but this is a small taste of the INSANITY that many of us went through — right here in the United States of America. LAWFARE at its finest. A Complete and Total Disgrace!!!!!’ he added. 

Less than a half-hour after Scavino’s post, FBI Director Kash Patel responded to him saying ‘I got one of those too…’ 

Jeff Clark, the current acting administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, then chimed in Saturday morning, saying that he, too, received a similar message.

‘Indeed, a whole Jack Smith team was assigned to go through my emails after there was a privilege review,’ Clark wrote on X in reference to the former special counsel. 

‘But that group of lawyers ignored my religious pastor privilege, marital privilege, and other privileges and basically shipped all they could to Jack Smith. But it still cost me tens of thousands to try to protect my communications,’ he added. 

Smith was tapped by former Attorney General Merrick Garland to probe allegations that Trump sought to overturn the 2020 election results, and later investigated the handling of classified documents that were uncovered during a raid at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound. 

‘My medical records and other private communications had nothing to do with the 2020 election. They were no one’s business. But it didn’t matter to these thugs with law degrees and the willingness to abuse government power,’ Clark said Saturday.  

‘They were trying to bait me to go to court to get them to destroy their secret copies of the emails, so they could try to break even my lawyer-client privilege with President Trump. But my team and I didn’t fall for it,’ Clark also said. ‘Moreover, the whole thing was a blatant attempt to intimidate me. It didn’t work and I didn’t fold under the pressure.’ 

The FBI did not immediately respond Saturday to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Fox News’ Alex Miller contributed to this report. 

The path to a deal on confirming a slew of President Donald Trump’s nominees appeared shaky at best in the Senate Saturday, as Republicans and Democrats sparred over terms and conditions to find a way forward.

Senators were supposed to be long gone from Washington by now, but Trump’s demands to ram his nominees through Senate Democrats’ historic blockade have kept lawmakers in town. But by late afternoon, not much progress had been made.

When asked if any headway had been made, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital, ‘Unfortunately, not really, no.’

‘The Dems are dug in on a position that’s just not working,’ he said.

Negotiations have been ongoing among Republicans, Democrats and the White House. Thune and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., met last night to discuss an offer from Democrats. The two have not spoken directly since then, instead communicating through intermediaries, Thune said. However, he expected they would talk again later Saturday.

Senate Republicans want to strike a deal that would see nominees that made it through committee with bipartisan support get lightning-fast votes on the floor, but Schumer has not relented.

A source familiar with negotiations said Senate Democrats are looking for deals on the release of funding withheld by the White House and a guarantee that there will be no future rescissions packages — a particular sticking point for them heading into the looming deadline to fund the government. In exchange, they are offering a tranche of nominees to go ahead now, and another round later in the fall.

But Trump, who is at his Bedminster, N.J., golf course, has demanded that lawmakers stay in town and pass the entire slate of nominees on the Senate calendar, which has ballooned to over 150.

The president lauded Senate Republicans in a post to Truth Social on Saturday ‘for fighting, over the Weekend and far beyond, if necessary, in order to get my great Appointments approved, and on their way to helping us MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’

‘The Radical Left Democrat Senators are doing everything possible to DELAY these wonderful and talented people from being approved,’ he said. ‘If George Washington or Abraham Lincoln were up for approval, the Dems would delay, as long as possible, then vote them out.’

While Republicans have confirmed well over 100 of the president’s nominees, the only pick to make it to the floor without objection was Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

Not a single one of Trump’s nominees has gotten a voice vote or gone through unanimous consent, two floor actions that have been routinely used to advance nominees in the upper chamber throughout the years. At this point four years ago, 49 of former President Joe Biden’s picks had been confirmed by voice vote.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., explained that Republicans have three options that they have enough support among the conference to move forward with: reach a deal with Democrats; adjourn the Senate and give the president runway for recess appointments and finally, a rules-change package, which some Republicans consider the ‘nuclear option.’

On recess appointments, a move floated since before Trump took office, Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., contended it would be up to Democrats whether Republicans actually went through with it.

‘The Democrats’ obstruction is leading to, in very short order, us taking the necessary actions to give the President power to make recess appointments,’ he said.

While it would be a touchy move that would set off a firestorm among Democrats, Republicans aren’t afraid to move ahead with a rules change. When asked if a rule change should be done before lawmakers leave town, Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said ‘I think that’d be best.’

But the preference is to strike a deal, preferably on a potential package on over 60 nominees that were advanced out of committee in a bipartisan fashion.

‘The reason why we’re that way is because Schumer led us down this road,’ Mullin said. ‘He didn’t have to do it this way.’

The Senate on Saturday confirmed Jeanine Pirro, President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as Washington D.C.’s top prosecutor, as lawmakers failed to reach a deal to ram through dozens of the president’s nominees.

The onetime New York judge and prosecutor and former Fox News host was one of the over 150 still outstanding nominees on the Senate’s calendar as Senate Republicans work to find a path forward to ram through Senate Democrats’ blockade of Trump’s nominees, and part of a slew of picks to get a vote over the weekend. But just ahead of her confirmation vote, the path to a deal was derailed, and lawmakers opted to ram through just seven of Trump’s nominees before heading home until September.

Pirro, who was confirmed by a 50-45 vote, will serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, a post she has held since May on an interim basis.

Pirro previously served as the District Attorney in Westchester County, New York, for over a decade. Prior to that, she was on the bench as a judge in Westchester County in the early 1990s.

‘Jeanine is incredibly well-qualified for this position, and is considered one of the Top District Attorneys in the History of the State of New York,’ Trump said when he nominated Pirro. ‘She is in a class by herself.’

She was not Trump’s first pick for the job, however. His first choice, Ed Martin, failed to gain enough support among Republicans earlier this year. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., effectively tanked Martin’s nomination over concerns about his views on the Jan. 6, 2021 riot on Capitol Hill.

And Pirro’s road to confirmation was not without its own hiccups and drama.

Senate Democrats have accused her of amplifying Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims and defending him after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot during her time as a Fox News host, and warned that she would do the president’s bidding in her role as Washington D.C.’s top prosecutor.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last month, Democrats staged a walkout in protest of both her and U.S. District Judge Emil Bove, who was confirmed earlier this week in a tight, 50 to 49 vote. She later advanced out of committee on a party-line vote.

‘She’s an election denialist, recklessly peddling President Trump’s Big Lie despite even her own Fox News producers and executives warning her to reel it in,’ Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill. and the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee said of Pirro. 

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is investigating former special counsel Jack Smith, the OSC has confirmed to Fox News.

Smith was tapped in 2022 by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to serve as special counsel regarding two probes pertaining to then-former President Donald Trump.

The OSC is investigating Smith for allegedly violating the Hatch Act, which bars government employees from partaking in political activities. It is not a criminal investigation. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Saturday, but did not receive a response.

The OSC is not the same as a special counsel appointed by an attorney general, as Smith was, but ‘is an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency,’ according to its website. 

‘OSC’s statutory authority comes from four federal laws: the Civil Service Reform Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act, the Hatch Act, and the Uniformed Services Employment & Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA),’ the website explains.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas recently asked the OSC to look into whether Smith illegally engaged in political activity to influence the 2024 election against Trump.

‘I write requesting the Office of Special Counsel to investigate whether Jack Smith, Special Counsel for Attorney General Merrick Garland, unlawfully took political actions to influence the 2024 election to harm then-candidate President Donald Trump,’ Cotton wrote in a July 30 letter to Acting Special Counsel Jamieson Greer.

‘President Trump of course vanquished Joe Biden, Jack Smith, every Democrat who weaponized the law against him, but President Trump’s astounding victory doesn’t excuse Smith of responsibility for his unlawful election interference. I therefore ask the Office of Special Counsel to investigate whether Jack Smith or any members of his team unlawfully acted for political purposes,’ Cotton wrote.

Fox News’ David Spunt contributed to this report.

Hours of tense negotiations to strike a deal on President Donald Trump’s nominees blew up Saturday night, and now lawmakers are headed home.

Senate Republicans and Democrats were quick to point the finger at one another for the deal’s demise, but it was ultimately Trump who nuked the talks.

In a lengthy post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., of ‘demanding over One Billion Dollars in order to approve a small number of our highly qualified nominees.’

‘This demand is egregious and unprecedented, and would be embarrassing to the Republican Party if it were accepted. It is political extortion, by any other name,’ Trump said. ‘Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL!’

‘Do not accept the offer,’ he continued. ‘Go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country. Have a great RECESS and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!’

Instead of finding a pathway to vote on as many as 60 of the president’s nominees, all of which moved through committee with bipartisan support, lawmakers rapid-fire voted on seven before leaving Washington until September.

But Schumer treated Trump’s move as a victory for Senate Democrats. He countered that it was the president who gave up on negotiations while he and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., worked to find a bipartisan solution, ‘provided the White House and Senate Republicans met our demands.’

‘He took his ball, he went home, leaving Democrats and Republicans alike wondering what the hell happened,’ Schumer said, standing next to a poster-sized version of the president’s post. 

‘Trump’s all-caps Tweet said it all,’ he continued. ‘In a fit of rage, Trump threw in the towel, sent Republicans home, and was unable to do the basic work of negotiating.’

But prior to the president’s edict, both sides of the aisle believed they were on the verge of a breakthrough to both meet Trump’s desire to see his nominees confirmed and leave Washington.

said that there were ‘lots of offers’ made between him and Schumer over the course of negotiations.

‘There were several different times where I think either or both sides maybe thought there was a deal in the end,’ he said.

Senate Democrats wanted the White House to unfreeze billions in National Institute of Health and foreign aid funding, in addition to a future agreement that no more clawback packages would come from the White House.

In exchange, they would greenlight several of Trump’s non-controversial nominees.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., accused Schumer of going ‘too far’ by upping the price tag on his demands.

‘We’ve had three different deals since last night,’ he said. ‘And every time it’s been, every time it’s ‘I want more,’’ Mullin said of Schumer’s demands.

He said that Republicans weren’t caught off guard by Trump’s call to halt talks, and noted that the White House had been heavily involved in negotiations.

‘You get to a realization that there was, it was never about making a deal,’ he continued. ‘They want to go out and say the President’s being unrealistic, and because he can’t answer to his base to make a deal like we have in every other president in history.’

Now, Republicans won’t pursue recess appointments, but Mullin noted that moving ahead with a rule change to the confirmation process when lawmakers return in September was going to happen in response.

‘The asks evolved on both sides quite a bit over time,’ Thune said. ‘But in the end, we never got to a place where we had both sides agree to lock it in.’

Senate Democrats, on the other hand, countered that their offer never changed, and that Republicans kept increasing the number of nominees they wanted across the line, and attempted to include more controversial, partisan picks.

Schumer wouldn’t reveal the details of his demands, but charged that any changes to Senate rules would be a ‘huge mistake,’ and urged Trump to work with Senate Democrats moving forward, particularly as Congress hurtles toward yet another deadline to fund the government in September. 

‘They should stop listening to him,’ Schumer said. ‘If they want to do what’s good for the American people, they shouldn’t be in blind obeisance to Donald Trump.’