WASHINGTON — The FBI monitored Melania and Barron Trump’s travel and tapped future White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ cellphone as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into whether President Trump illegally hoarded national security papers at Mar-a-Lago following his first term.
The first family’s trips were traced as the bureau plotted the best time to search Trump’s Palm Beach home, while Wiles’ phone was tracked in the months after the August 2022 raid to monitor her communications with Trump’s defense attorneys, according to documents released Monday by the White House.
The surveillance — which took place under then-President Joe Biden’s administration — was part of a secret probe titled “Plasmic Echo.”
Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland signed off on the wiretaps on the advice of then-FBI Director Christopher Wray, who sent Garland a memo in May 2022 warning the sensitive investigation could encompass top figures from the 45th president’s administration and “could potentially be disruptive to the democratic process if publicly disclosed prior to an election.”
Still, Wray encouraged Garland with a handwritten message at the bottom of the memo reading: “Merrick, I recomend you approve. CW.”
Wiles at the time was running Trump’s political operation as he prepared for the 2024 election.
The details of the FBI’s actions were revealed in a series of documents released by the White House Government Transparency Task Force.
An email exchange between FBI agents — whose names are redacted — in late May 2022 outlines the steps the agency took as it ramped up the documents probe, including finalizing its search warrant for Mar-a-Lago, contacting the Southern District of Florida US Attorney’s Office (which had jurisdiction at the time), and watching Donald, Melania and Barron Trump closely.
“Finalize FBI understanding of FPOTUS/FLOTUS/minor son’s travel (type of aircraft and specific
timeline),” notes one item on their list. The final two items on the agenda were “swear out the warrant” and
“finalize all coordination between FBI/DOJ/USSS” in West Palm Beach.
“Any search warrants would be served after the former President departs Mar a Lago,” another document noted.
A month ahead of the raid, an unnamed special agent raised concerns that the bureau did not have legal authority to raid the former president’s office or bedroom and suggested further conversations with Trump’s attorneys.
The FBI ultimately carried out the raid on August 8, 2022, which included searches of Trump’s office and both of the first couple’s bedrooms.
The newly released documents also reveal how bureau agents monitored Wiles’ cellphone between February and May 2023 for calls with nearly two dozen lawyers connected with Trump. Logs released Monday reflect conversations with campaign aides, political advisers and even some journalists — all of whose identities are redacted except that of current FBI Director Kash Patel, who was out of government service at the time.
The bureau also monitored Wiles’ calls with Trump, noting the former president had a “vanity number,” referring to a phone number that spells out a memorable word. The files don’t reveal the word but merely note the call, such as this entry from May 19, 2023: “2:05 pm The FPOTUS Vanity Number called WILES for 16 minutes and 11 seconds.”
The entries for each day show Wiles’ phone was in near-constant use — with her either calling someone or someone calling her about every 10 minutes.
On March 9, 2023, for example, Wiles made or received 39 calls:
- 6:00pm – Campaign 9 called Wiles, and they spoke for 39 seconds.
- 6:10pm – Lawyer 10 called Wiles for 49 seconds.
- 6:22pm – Wiles attempted to call Campaign 4
- 6:22pm – Wiles called Campaign 8 and they spoke for 56 seconds.
- 6:27pm – Campaign 4 called Wiles.
- 6:39pm – Lawyer 12 alled Wiles for 6 minutes and 50 seconds.
- 8:10pm – The FPOTUS Vanity Number called Wiles for 4 minutes and 1 second.
The bureau’s Washington Field Office noted “that [Lawyer 7] called Wiles at 2:04pm this afternoon for 41 seconds,” one March, 24, 2023, email stated.
“[Lawyer 7] first called Wiles at 2:10pm EST on March 21, and Wiles returned his call for 1 minute and 34 seconds later that day at 2:59pm,” a bureau agent wrote. “These are the only contacts we have observed between the two of them since the PR/TT’s inception.”
Another late February missive from an FBI intelligence analyst noted that “an ABC News reporter called her at 8:48 AM for 2 minutes and 36 seconds.”
By April of 2023, Wiles had sat down with FBI agents for an interview in Jacksonville, Fla., and later had her communication records both immediately before and after that sitdown queried.
“On 10 April 2023, WFO [redacted] reviewed WILES’s telephonic activity to determine contacts of interest on the date of her FBI interview,” another memo noted.
On that date, Wiles talked to former President Trump and several of his lawyers. She also received calls from a Washington Post reporter and Politico’s Florida bureau chief.
At the time of the surveillance, Smith’s investigation was focused on grand jury proceedings regarding potential obstruction of justice and whether Trump had claimed falsely that all classified documents had been returned to the National Archives.
The documents case against Trump was thrown out in July 2024 by a federal judge who found Smith had been unlawfully appointed by Garland.
“Jack Smith’s surveillance operation was a disgraceful abuse of government power,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement. “Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple. Those responsible must be held accountable.”
