Melania and Barron Trump (Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The Biden-era FBI tracked Trump family travel, including the First Lady and Barron Trump, and surveilled future White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ phone as federal officials worked the classified documents investigation reaching deep into Trump’s inner circle, newly declassified records show.
Documents released Monday by the White House detail “Plasmic Echo,” the probe later led by special counsel Jack Smith into whether Trump improperly retained classified documents after leaving office. The declassified documents show agents tracked the first lady and first son’s travel while planning the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, then monitored Susie Wiles’ calls involving defense lawyers, campaign advisers and journalists.
“Jack Smith’s surveillance operation was a disgraceful abuse of government power. Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. “Those responsible must be held accountable.”
The revelations come less than a week after Smith faced a contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing over investigative tactics used in his separate probe into Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election. That investigation, known as Arctic Frost, included the collection of phone-record information involving Republican lawmakers, while the newly released records stem from Plasmic Echo, the classified-documents investigation that ultimately led to the FBI’s 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago. (Read more: Fox News, 10/5/2026) (Archive)