Newly declassified records released by the White House on Monday are drawing fury from the president’s allies. They show that the FBI under Joe Biden spent months before the 2022 Mar-a-Lago raid mapping the movements of the former president’s family.
The documents, tied to the FBI’s classified-documents probe, show agents working to nail down the travel of Melania Trump and her minor son, Barron. The effort was part of the planning for the August 8, 2022 search of the Palm Beach estate.
One task list for Washington Field Office agents, with a deadline of May 31, 2022, told them to finalize the FBI’s understanding of the former president’s, the former first lady’s and the minor son’s travel. The list specifically asked for the type of aircraft and a specific timeline.
Barron Trump was 16 years old at the time. He was a high school student who had never held office, never been accused of anything, and had no role in any document dispute.
The investigation carried the code name Plasmic Echo. It began as a probe into whether Trump kept classified and national defense records after leaving the White House in 2021.
The paper trail shows the approvals went to the very top of the Justice Department. In March 2022, FBI Director Christopher Wray secured Attorney General Merrick Garland’s sign-off to open a full Sensitive Investigative Matter.
A May 2022 memo makes the story more startling. In it, Wray warned that the investigation was politically sensitive and could involve senior officials from Trump’s first administration. He also warned that if it became public before an election, it could be disruptive to the democratic process.
Wray still recommended approval, and Garland approved. The nation’s top law enforcement officials knew the political explosiveness of what they were doing and went ahead anyway.
The planning also took the Trump family’s whereabouts into account. One planning document noted that any search warrants would be served after the former president departed Mar-a-Lago.
The surveillance did not stop with the family’s travel. The records show that after the raid, from February to May 2023, investigators monitored the phone of Susie Wiles, who now serves as White House chief of staff.
Agents used a pen register, which logs outgoing numbers, and a trap-and-trace device, which logs incoming ones. They tracked who called her, how often, and when, and they also followed her calls with lawyers.
The records even noted when Melania Trump called Wiles, which phone the first lady used, and how long the conversation lasted. Few things say more about how far the probe reached than a government log of the first lady’s phone calls.
Then there is the revolt inside the FBI itself. An internal email dated July 13, 2022, less than a month before the raid, shows a senior Washington Field Office official flatly stating that the field office did not believe probable cause had been established for the Mar-a-Lago search warrant.
The same email said the Justice Department disagreed and wanted a wide scope covering the residence, the office and storage space. In other words, the agents closest to the case had doubts that Washington leadership brushed aside.
Earlier messages show the field office searching for another way. A May 24, 2022 email said that if the records could be obtained without executing a search warrant, that would be preferable.
Emails from June 1 and 2 pushed for a reasonable conversation with the former president’s attorney. They argued that even if the documents were declassified, as Trump’s lawyers claimed, they remained sensitive and could be secured while the question was sorted out.
One agent complained that five weeks spent fixated on probable cause had been counterproductive if the goal was to recover classified records quickly. The agent also noted that the Justice Department had not supplied a list of potential charges.
The raid came on August 8, 2022, with agents entering shortly before 9 a.m. Jim Jordan later told the House Judiciary Committee that agents searched Barron’s room and the first lady’s closet. Melania Trump has said the FBI searched through her personal belongings and called it an invasion of her privacy.
The White House did not mince words after the release. It called spying on political opponents the weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple, and said those responsible must be held accountable.
