Washington—New documents declassified by the White House have revealed details of the federal investigation known as “Plasmic Echo,” in which FBI agents tracked the movements of Melania Trump and her son Barron before the raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022.
The documents, released on Monday, show that investigators
sought to determine the travel plans of the then-First Lady and Barron Trump,
including the type of aircraft they would use and their schedules, as part of
the planning prior to the operation at the Florida property.
The file also reveals that investigators paid attention to
Susie Wiles, who would later become Donald Trump’s chief of staff. Between
February and May 2023, the FBI collected records of communications made and
received from her phone using call-logging mechanisms.
The reports included phone numbers, times, call durations,
and contacts with lawyers associated with Trump, political advisors, members of
his campaign, and journalists. The documents also recorded communications
between Wiles and the former president himself.
The documentation is part of the investigation related to
the classified documents Trump kept after leaving the White House, which later
led to the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago.
The records also show that there were discussions within the
FBI itself about the sufficiency of the available evidence to request a search
warrant. A July 2022 memo indicated that officials in the Washington office
believed that sufficient probable cause to search the property had not yet been
established.
The investigation had been authorized at the highest levels
of the Justice Department during Joe Biden's administration. Documents cited in
the reports indicate that then-FBI Director Christopher Wray and Justice
Department officials participated in the authorization process.