FBI used pen-register surveillance on Trump aide Susie Wiles during 2024 probe

Newly released memos detail how Jack Smith’s investigation, codenamed “Plasmic Echo,” used a pen-register and trap-and-trace system to record every call to and from Susie Wiles, the former chief of staff and co-campaign manager for Donald Trump. From early 2023 through May, the FBI logged contacts with more than two dozen lawyers linked to Trump’s defense, multiple campaign advisers and at least five journalists, though most names were redacted.

The operation was authorized at the highest levels of the Biden Justice Department, with Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco signing off after FBI Director Christopher Wray’s recommendation. Agents also scrutinized the financial disclosures of Trump’s Save America PAC and explored leveraging political endorsements to compel testimony from former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, who was later subpoenaed.

The surveillance was justified as a means to determine whether Trump violated laws concerning classified documents taken to Mar-a-Lago. Critics, including Senator Marsha Blackburn, have sued over alleged civil-rights violations stemming from similar phone-record subpoenas.