FBI Logged Wiles’ Calls and Tracked Melania and Barron’s Travel in Smith Probe

Newly released FBI memos show the bureau tracked Melania Trump and Barron Trump’s travel while planning the 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago, then later logged calls to and from Susie Wiles’ phone, including contacts with Trump’s lawyers.

The White House Government Transparency Task Force released the records Monday. They come from the classified-documents investigation code-named Plasmic Echo, the file special counsel Jack Smith took over and used to charge President Trump. A federal judge dismissed those charges in July 2024, ruling Smith had not been lawfully appointed.

The two tracks are not the same tool. The family item is a travel check before the search. The Wiles item is a pen register and trap-and-trace, labeled PR/TT in the memos, on her phone months after the search. A PR/TT records numbers, times, and duration. The released logs do not show agents capturing what was said.

An email exchange among FBI agents in late May 2022 lists steps as the documents probe moved toward a warrant. One item reads: “Finalize FBI understanding of FPOTUS/FLOTUS/minor son’s travel (type of aircraft and specific timeline).” Other items on the list were swearing out the warrant and coordinating with the Secret Service in West Palm Beach. A separate note said any search warrants would be served after the former president left Mar-a-Lago. Barron Trump was a minor at the time.

The FBI searched Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, 2022. The search included Trump’s office and both of the first couple’s bedrooms. A Washington Field Office update later quoted by Just the News said the field office did not believe it had established probable cause for a search of the residence, office, and storage space, and that the Justice Department disagreed and wanted the wider scope. The same update said agents had suggested speaking with Trump and his counsel. The department did not take that path.

Wiles was co-campaign manager after Trump announced his 2024 run in November 2022. She is now White House chief of staff. From at least February through May 2023, Washington Field Office agents reviewed the PR/TT on her number. The logs cover contacts with at least 21 Trump-affiliated lawyers, campaign staff, political advisers, and at least five journalists. Most names are redacted. Two are not: current FBI Director Kash Patel, then out of government, and Just the News founder John Solomon.

A March 24, 2023, note says the office was “continuing to review the PR/TT on Wiles’s phone number” and that a person labeled Lawyer 7 called her at 2:04 p.m. for 41 seconds. The same note says Lawyer 7 had called on March 21 and that Wiles returned the call for 1 minute and 34 seconds. “These are the only contacts we have observed between the two of them since the PR/TT’s inception,” the employee wrote.

A late-February analyst note says an ABC News reporter called her at 8:48 a.m. for 2 minutes and 36 seconds, and that there was “nothing significant to report.” A May 19, 2023, entry reads: “2:05 pm The FPOTUS Vanity Number called WILES for 16 minutes and 11 seconds.” On March 9, the logs show 39 calls to or from Wiles in an evening window, including lawyers, campaign numbers, and the same Trump line.

Agents also pulled her phone activity around an FBI interview in Jacksonville on April 7, 2023. A memo dated April 10 says the field office reviewed her calls “to determine contacts of interest on the date of her FBI interview.” That day’s contacts included Trump, several of his lawyers, a Washington Post reporter, and Politico’s Florida bureau chief.

The opening of the sensitive investigation was approved at the top of the Biden Justice Department. In a March 2022 memo, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to approve what became Plasmic Echo. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco wrote “I recommend you approve” and initialed it. Garland signed. Smith told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that politics did not play a role in his work and that he would pursue the case again.

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said Smith’s operation was “a disgraceful abuse of government power” and that “spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple.”