Biden’s FBI tracked Melania and Barron Trump’s travel and tapped Susie Wiles’ phone in the Mar-a-Lago probe, White House officials call it weaponized law enforcement.
Newly released records show the FBI monitored the travel of Melania Trump and her son Barron while plotting the search of Mar-a-Lago, then tracked the cellphone of future White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles for months afterward.
The surveillance ran under President Joe Biden’s administration as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into whether Donald Trump retained national security documents at his Palm Beach home after his first term. The secret probe carried the title “Plasmic Echo.”
The New York Post reported that the White House Government Transparency Task Force released the documents Monday, detailing how agents timed the August 8, 2022, search around the first family’s movements and later logged Wiles’ calls with nearly two dozen lawyers tied to Trump.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis did not say much about the operation.
"Jack Smith’s surveillance operation was a disgraceful abuse of government power."
She added a second charge aimed at the broader pattern.
"Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple. Those responsible must be held accountable."
Internal FBI traffic from late May 2022 shows agents working to lock down the former first family’s schedule before any warrant was served. One planning item put the assignment in plain language.
"Finalize FBI understanding of FPOTUS/FLOTUS/minor son’s travel (type of aircraft and specific timeline),"
Other agenda lines covered swearing out the warrant and finishing coordination among the FBI, Justice Department, and U.S. Secret Service in West Palm Beach. Planners also set a clear condition for service.
"Any search warrants would be served after the former President departs Mar a Lago,"
A month before the search, an unnamed special agent raised separate concerns that the bureau might lack legal authority to enter the former president’s office or the first couple’s bedrooms and suggested more talks with Trump’s attorneys. The FBI went forward anyway on August 8, 2022, searching Trump’s office and both bedrooms.
Those same records now sit alongside other declassified records on FBI tracking of Melania and Barron Trump’s movements and Wiles’ lawyer contacts, sharpening the picture of how far the probe reached into private family and political circles.
In May 2022, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray sent Attorney General Merrick Garland a memo on the sensitive investigation. Wray warned it could sweep in top figures from Trump’s administration and “could potentially be disruptive to the democratic process if publicly disclosed prior to an election.”
On the same memo, Wray added a handwritten note.
"Merrick, I recomend you approve. CW."
Garland signed off on the wiretaps on that advice. The documents case against Trump was later thrown out in July 2024 by a federal judge who found Smith had been unlawfully appointed by Garland.
From February through May 2023, the FBI monitored Wiles’ cellphone under a pen-register and trap-and-trace order. At the time she was running Trump’s political operation as he prepared for the 2024 race. Agents focused on her contacts with defense lawyers, campaign aides, political advisers, and some journalists.
Call logs show near-constant activity, calls about every ten minutes on busy days. On March 9, 2023, alone, Wiles made or received 39 calls. Entries that evening include short contacts with campaign staff and lawyers, plus a longer call from what agents labeled the “FPOTUS Vanity Number.”
One May 19, 2023, entry recorded that number calling Wiles at 2:05 p.m. for 16 minutes and 11 seconds. Other notes tracked brief exchanges with “Lawyer 7,” including a 41-second call on March 24 and a returned call of one minute and 34 seconds on March 21. Agents wrote that those were the only contacts observed between the two since monitoring began.
Journalists also appeared in the logs. A late February note logged an ABC News reporter calling Wiles at 8:48 a.m. for two minutes and 36 seconds. The scrutiny of Melania’s circle fits a longer pattern of outside pressure on the family’s private life, including stretches when family time has suffered under public demands.
By April 2023, Wiles met FBI agents for an interview in Jacksonville, Florida. On April 10, the Washington Field Office reviewed her telephonic activity that same day for “contacts of interest.” Records show she spoke with Trump and several of his lawyers and took calls from a Washington Post reporter and Politico’s Florida bureau chief.
Most identities in the logs remain redacted. One name left visible was Kash Patel, then out of government and later FBI director. The monitoring window closed in May 2023, months after the Mar-a-Lago search and while the documents probe continued.
Melania Trump has kept a lower public profile in recent cycles, a choice that has itself drawn commentary, including coverage of her limited 2026 public schedule and the media reaction that followed.
Taken together, the released files show a two-stage effort. First, agents mapped Melania and Barron Trump’s travel, aircraft type and timeline included, to pick the moment for a warrant at Mar-a-Lago. Then, after the search, they spent months watching the phone of the woman managing Trump’s political operation, capturing her contacts with lawyers, aides, and the former president himself.
Southern District of Florida prosecutors had jurisdiction at the time and were contacted during planning. Coordination with the Secret Service was listed as a required step before any warrant service in West Palm Beach. The raid still reached the first couple’s private bedrooms despite the earlier internal question about authority.
Wiles’ role put her at the center of Trump’s post-presidency political work. Logging her calls with counsel and campaign staff gave investigators a window into defense and political strategy during an active special counsel case. The White House release now puts those choices in public view.
Separate from the legal fight, Melania has continued to shape her own public story on her terms, from a planned two-part docuseries on her White House years to selective appearances that keep the focus on her priorities rather than the old probe’s shadow.
The documents do not resolve every open question about the exact legal process behind each monitoring tool, or the full unredacted list of contacts. They do show senior approval at the top of the FBI and Justice Department, a search timed to the first family’s movements, and months of phone surveillance on a key Trump adviser after the raid.
When federal power is used to map a former first lady’s travel and listen in on the future chief of staff’s calls with counsel, voters can judge for themselves whether that was routine investigation or something closer to the abuse the White House now names.