Newly declassified FBI records are shedding fresh light on just how closely federal investigators watched Donald Trump’s inner circle during the investigation that ultimately led to the unprecedented search of Mar-a-Lago.
The records show FBI investigators gathering information about Melania Trump and Barron Trump’s travel plans as agents prepared for the August 2022 search of the former president’s Florida estate.
Separate records reveal that investigators later used a surveillance tool to monitor phone metadata connected to Susie Wiles, who was then a senior Trump political adviser and would eventually become White House chief of staff.
The newly released material is part of an investigation known internally as “Plasmic Echo” and was made public by the White House Government Transparency Task Force on Monday, October 5.
The White House has portrayed the records as evidence of an overly aggressive investigation of Trump and those around him. However, some important distinctions are necessary.
The documents do not show that investigators were listening to Melania or Barron Trump’s conversations. Rather, records from the period leading up to the Mar-a-Lago search show agents trying to determine the Trump family’s travel schedule as officials planned when and how to execute a court-approved search warrant.
One May 2022 email exchange included discussions about how Donald Trump, Melania and Barron were traveling, including aircraft information and their expected schedules.
Another document stated that any search warrants would be served after the former president had left Mar-a-Lago.
That appears to have been part of an effort to execute the search while Trump and his immediate family were away from the property and to coordinate the operation with federal prosecutors and the Secret Service.
The FBI ultimately searched Mar-a-Lago on August 8, 2022, after a federal magistrate judge approved the search warrant.
Agents searched Trump’s office, storage areas and portions of the residential quarters while looking for government documents, including records bearing classified markings.
The investigation began after the National Archives sought the return of presidential records taken to Florida when Trump left the White House in January 2021.
Trump repeatedly argued that he had broad authority over the records and accused the Justice Department of targeting him for political reasons.
The newly released records are likely to intensify that argument.
But one detail in some early reports about the documents requires clarification: Jack Smith did not oversee the FBI investigation when the Mar-a-Lago search occurred.
Smith was appointed special counsel by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland on November 18, 2022 — more than three months after agents searched the property.
Smith subsequently took control of the classified-documents investigation as well as the federal investigation into Trump’s efforts surrounding the 2020 election.
The newly released records also provide a window into surveillance techniques used later in the investigation.
Investigators obtained information from a pen register and trap-and-trace device associated with Wiles’ phone.
Unlike a wiretap, that technology does not record what people say during their calls.
Instead, it can reveal information such as the telephone numbers involved, when communications occurred and how long calls lasted.
According to the newly released records, FBI personnel reviewed Wiles’ contacts with Trump-associated attorneys, political advisers and journalists during portions of 2023.
The records reportedly identified contacts involving at least 21 attorneys connected to Trump as well as several journalists.
One February 2023 entry noted a call from an ABC News reporter. Other records tracked contacts involving members of Trump’s legal and political orbit.
The level of detail was striking.
In one example from May 19, 2023, investigators documented a call from a number associated with Trump to Wiles and recorded its duration as 16 minutes and 11 seconds.
The documents also indicate investigators examined Wiles’ telephone activity surrounding an April 7, 2023, FBI interview, apparently looking at whom she contacted before or afterward.
That monitoring has become one of the most controversial elements of the newly disclosed material because Wiles was deeply involved in Trump’s political operation at the time and routinely communicated with attorneys, journalists and campaign officials.
Still, the records released so far do not establish that investigators listened to those calls or obtained the substance of attorney-client conversations merely through the pen-register surveillance.
The revelations nevertheless raise broader questions about the scope of the investigation and how federal authorities handled politically sensitive communications involving the leading Republican presidential candidate and people close to him.
The White House sharply criticized the investigation after releasing the records.
“Jack Smith’s surveillance operation was a disgraceful abuse of government power,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said.
She accused investigators of “spying on political opponents” and called for those responsible to be held accountable.
Former Biden administration officials and Smith have previously rejected allegations that the prosecutions of Trump were politically directed, maintaining that the investigations were based on evidence and federal law rather than partisan considerations.
There is also no evidence in the newly released material establishing that President Joe Biden personally ordered investigators to track the Trump family’s movements or Wiles’ communications.
The investigation did, however, operate within the Justice Department during Biden’s presidency. Garland authorized significant steps in the Mar-a-Lago matter, including the decision to seek the 2022 search warrant, while FBI Director Christopher Wray headed the bureau.
Trump was eventually charged in 2023 with dozens of federal counts involving the handling and alleged obstruction of efforts to recover classified government records. He pleaded not guilty and repeatedly described the case as politically motivated.
In July 2024, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified-documents prosecution after finding that Smith had been improperly appointed as special counsel.
Smith’s office appealed that ruling, but the federal prosecution against Trump was ultimately abandoned after Trump won the 2024 presidential election, consistent with longstanding Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
The latest document release therefore does not reopen the criminal case.
Instead, it provides new details about what investigators were doing behind the scenes — from determining when members of Trump’s family would be away from Mar-a-Lago to scrutinizing the phone contacts of one of his closest political advisers.
For Trump and his allies, those details are likely to become further evidence in their long-running argument that federal law enforcement went too far.
For investigators and their defenders, the central question will be whether those techniques were legally authorized and reasonably connected to a legitimate criminal investigation.
Either way, the newly declassified records ensure that the extraordinary Mar-a-Lago investigation — more than four years after agents entered the property — remains very much a political and legal flashpoint.
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