Records Detail FBI Travel and Call Data Collection

Newly released FBI records show that agents planning the August 2022 search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property were directed to establish Melania and Barron Trump’s travel details, and that investigators collected call-detail records for Susie Wiles from February through May 2023 during the classified-documents investigation known as Plasmic Echo. A late-May 2022 planning document listed the travel information as a pre-search task, including the type of aircraft and a specific timeline. The records do not establish that Melania or Barron Trump were suspected of wrongdoing. The FBI searched Mar-a-Lago on August 8, 2022, as part of its investigation into Trump’s handling of classified government documents after leaving office. The records also describe investigators collecting details of calls made or received by Wiles, who was then working in Trump’s political operation and now serves as White House chief of staff. The information covered February to May 2023 and included calls involving Trump-affiliated lawyers, campaign aides, political advisers and journalists. The records described contain phone numbers, times and call durations, not the contents of conversations.