The FBI tracked First Lady Melania Trump and Barron Trump. They did this during a secret probe into classified documents. New records show the surveillance reached deep into the Trump circle.
This was not just about files. It was about people close to the former president. The White House released these documents on Monday.
They detail an operation called Plasmic Echo. This probe was later led by special counsel Jack Smith. Agents were planning the search of Mar-a-Lago.
They needed to know where the Trumps were going. So they watched their travel plans closely. This happened before the famous raid on the property.
The surveillance went even further than the family. The FBI monitored Susie Wiles. She would later become President Trump's Chief of Staff.
Agents tracked her phone calls. They listened to who she called. They noted calls to defense lawyers.
They noted calls to campaign advisers. They also noted calls to journalists. The documents say they collected call details.
They did not listen to the conversation content. This distinction matters for legal reasons. But the scope of the spying is vast.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis spoke to Fox News Digital. She called the operation a disgraceful abuse of power. Bis said spying on political opponents is weaponization.
She said law enforcement was used as a tool. Those responsible must be held accountable, she stated. This news follows a recent Senate Judiciary hearing.
Jack Smith faced questions about his tactics there. That hearing covered a different probe called Arctic Frost. That investigation looked at efforts to challenge 2020 results.
It also collected phone records of Republican lawmakers. Now we see the classified documents probe was just as wide. The money for these investigations came from the government.
Taxpayers funded the agents and the surveillance tools. The targets were political allies of Donald Trump. The investigators worked under the Biden administration.
The records show a pattern of intense scrutiny. This scrutiny targeted the inner circle of a former president. It was not limited to the president himself.
It included his wife, his son, and his staff. The goal was to find improperly retained documents. But the method involved broad surveillance of personal contacts.
The documents are now public for all to see. The facts are clear in the released text. The government spent resources on these specific targets.
The outcome was a search and subsequent charges. The legal battles continue in courtrooms today. The public now has the raw data.
You can read the documents yourself. The trail of money and power is visible. The bureaucracy acted with significant reach during this period.