Newly released documents reveal that FBI agents tracked the travel plans of Melania Trump and her son, Barron, while preparing to search President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate during the classified documents investigation.

The records, from the investigation code-named “Plasmic Echo,” show that agents sought information about the family’s travel schedules and flight arrangements as they planned to conduct the search after Trump left the Florida property.

The search took place on August 8, 2022. Agents seized thousands of documents, including more than 100 bearing classification markings.

The released materials also detail the collection of communications records associated with the phone of Susie Wiles, now the White House chief of staff, between February and May 2023. Investigators categorized her contacts with attorneys representing Trump, political advisers, campaign personnel, Trump Organization employees and journalists.

The documents further reveal internal disagreements over the investigation, which then-FBI Director Christopher Wray and then-Attorney General Merrick Garland approved opening in March 2022.

Investigators in the FBI’s Washington Field Office raised concerns that sufficient grounds for a search had not yet been established. They also argued that efforts to gather evidence for a search warrant were undermining attempts to secure the return of the documents.

The White House sharply condemned the conduct described in the records, calling the monitoring a “disgraceful abuse of government power.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)