Biden FBI Tracked Melania and Barron Trump’s Movements Before Mar-a-Lago Raid

Newly declassified records are raising fresh questions about how far the Biden-era FBI went while investigating Donald Trump, revealing that federal agents tracked the travel movements of Melania Trump and Barron Trump while preparing for the unprecedented 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago.

The documents also show investigators later collected detailed information about calls involving Trump campaign adviser Susie Wiles, now President Trump’s White House chief of staff, as the classified documents investigation expanded deeper into Trump’s political, legal and personal circle.

The disclosures are part of a new release from the White House Government Transparency Task Force involving an investigation known internally as “Plasmic Echo.”

According to the records, FBI officials preparing to search Trump’s Palm Beach estate wanted to know when Trump and members of his family would be away from the property.

A May 2022 email exchange shows agents discussing the movements of Donald Trump, Melania Trump and their son Barron, including how they were traveling and what aircraft they were using.

Investigators were simultaneously working on the search warrant, coordinating with federal prosecutors and preparing to communicate with the Secret Service.

One document stated that any search warrants would be served only after the former president had departed Mar-a-Lago.

That detail is significant because it suggests the information about Melania and Barron was being gathered at least partly to determine when the property could be searched without the Trump family present.

The FBI ultimately executed the court-authorized search on August 8, 2022.

Agents searched Trump’s office, storage areas and residential portions of Mar-a-Lago, recovering more than 100 documents bearing classified markings, according to subsequent Justice Department court filings.

But the newly released records are now putting renewed attention on how federal investigators planned that operation — particularly their decision to keep track of the movements of a former first lady and Trump’s then-minor son.

Republicans and Trump allies have long accused the Biden administration of weaponizing federal law enforcement against the president’s chief political rival. The latest disclosures are likely to add fuel to those concerns.

The White House described the records as evidence of an unusually broad investigative operation that eventually included lawyers, campaign advisers and journalists who communicated with people in Trump’s orbit.

There is an important distinction, however, between the activity involving Trump’s family and the separate surveillance involving Wiles.

The records do not show that the FBI secretly listened to Melania or Barron Trump’s telephone calls.

Instead, the documents indicate agents were tracking travel information while preparing for the Mar-a-Lago search.

The surveillance involving Wiles went further.

After the Mar-a-Lago search, investigators obtained information through a pen register or similar investigative tool that documented telephone metadata associated with Wiles.

Such technology can show information including telephone numbers, the timing of calls and how long they lasted. It does not, by itself, reveal the contents of the conversations.

The records reportedly show communications involving at least 21 defense attorneys, five journalists and several political advisers.

One entry from May 19, 2023, documented a call from a number associated with Trump to Wiles that lasted 16 minutes and 11 seconds.

Investigators were particularly interested in Wiles’ communications with Trump’s attorneys and members of his political organization.

That aspect of the investigation is now drawing some of the fiercest criticism from Trump’s allies because communications involving lawyers and journalists can raise particularly sensitive constitutional and attorney-client concerns, depending on precisely what information was obtained and how it was used.

The newly disclosed records do not establish that investigators intercepted the contents of privileged conversations.

The White House nevertheless characterized the operation in stark terms.

“Jack Smith’s surveillance operation was a disgraceful abuse of government power,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement accompanying the disclosure.

“Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple,” she added. “Those responsible must be held accountable.”

The chronology surrounding the investigation is also important.

Jack Smith did not oversee the investigation when the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith as special counsel on November 18, 2022, after Trump announced another campaign for president. Smith then took control of an already-existing Justice Department investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents and possible obstruction.

Garland said at the time that appointing an independent special counsel was warranted because Trump was seeking the presidency while President Joe Biden was expected to seek reelection.

Smith later obtained a federal indictment accusing Trump of unlawfully retaining national defense information and obstructing government efforts to recover documents after leaving the White House.

Trump pleaded not guilty and repeatedly described the prosecution as politically motivated.

The government alleged that Trump had returned 15 boxes to the National Archives in January 2022 containing 197 documents with classification markings. Another 38 documents with classification markings were handed over in response to a federal grand jury subpoena in June, prosecutors said.

The August search recovered another 102 documents bearing classification markings from Trump’s office and a storage room.

Trump and his supporters argued throughout the case that no previous president had been subjected to comparable treatment and accused Biden’s Justice Department of interfering in the 2024 presidential election.

The criminal case ultimately never went to trial.

In July 2024, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the indictment after ruling that Smith had been unlawfully appointed because Congress had not properly authorized his position.

Smith appealed the ruling, but after Trump won the 2024 presidential election, prosecutors abandoned the criminal case against him in accordance with longstanding Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

The remaining appeal involving Trump’s co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira was formally dismissed in February 2025, bringing the classified documents prosecution to an end.

The newest documents do not resolve the larger political fight over whether investigators acted properly.

Federal law enforcement officials maintained throughout the original case that the investigation concerned the handling of highly sensitive government records and alleged efforts to prevent their recovery.

Trump and his allies have consistently argued that the extraordinary investigative tactics used against a former president — who was simultaneously Biden’s leading political opponent — crossed a line.

Now, the revelation that agents were documenting Melania and Barron Trump’s travel and later scrutinizing the phone contacts of Trump’s campaign leadership is giving Republicans new material to support their long-running allegations of political weaponization.

And with the Trump administration continuing to release records from Biden-era investigations, the dispute over exactly how the government pursued Trump and his inner circle appears far from over.