Newly declassified documents are raising serious questions about the FBI’s investigation into Donald Trump, revealing the extent to which federal investigators tracked members of the former president’s family and monitored the phone activity of one of his closest political allies.
The records, released by the White House’s Government Transparency Task Force on October 5, shed new light on an investigation operating under the codename “Plasmic Echo.” The probe preceded the FBI’s August 2022 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida and later became part of the classified documents case overseen by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Among the most troubling details is a planning document that instructed investigators to establish the travel patterns of Trump, former first lady Melania Trump, and their youngest son, Barron. At the time, Barron was just 16 years old.
The disclosures also reveal that investigators obtained a court-authorized pen register and trap-and-trace device targeting the phone of Susie Wiles, who was managing Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. The resulting records documented communications involving a network of Trump allies, attorneys, political advisers, and journalists.
