Allegations that former special counsel Jack Smiths team secretly monitored a senior Trump adviser and multiple attorneys are raising profound questions about government overreach, civil liberties, and the integrity of the Biden administrations pursuit of its chief political rival.
According to Western Journal, newly declassified FBI documents reviewed by Just The News indicate that Smiths prosecutors deployed a pen register/trap-and-trace (PR/TT) device on the phone of Susie Wiles, a top adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump, in 2023. The surveillance tool reportedly enabled investigators to capture detailed metadata about her calls, including who she contacted, who contacted her, the timing and duration of calls, and associated technical information, all without recording the actual content of the conversations.
The records examined by Just The News show that between February and May 2023, Smiths team tracked Wiles communications with at least 21 Trump-affiliated attorneys, along with campaign staff, political strategists, and journalists. Among those reportedly swept up in this dragnet was Just The News founder John Solomon, who later wrote on X that all of Wiles and his activities were protected by the First Amendment.
Critics argue that the scope and granularity of the data collection go far beyond what is necessary for a legitimate criminal inquiry and veer into the territory of political surveillance. One FBI record, for instance, described in meticulous detail how a lawyer identified only as Lawyer 7 placed a call to Wiles at a specific time, and how she returned the call, with the document even noting the exact length of the conversation.
Good afternoon, WFO is continuing to review the PR/TT on Wiless phone number and observed that [Lawyer 7] called Wiles at 2:04pm this afternoon for 41 seconds, the record stated, referring to the Washington, D.C., Field Office by its acronym WFO. The same entry underscored that agents were actively and continuously monitoring the PR/TT data, suggesting a sustained effort to map out Trumps legal and political network in real time.
The monitoring of Wiles and her contacts reportedly occurred under an FBI investigation code-named Plasmic Echo, which focused on Trumps alleged retention of classified documents after leaving the White House. Then-FBI Director Christopher Wray recommended opening the probe in 2022, and it was subsequently approved by then-Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Attorney General Merrick Garland, both key figures in an administration that has repeatedly insisted its prosecutions are insulated from politics.
By the time Plasmic Echo was launched, Trump had already declared his 2024 presidential candidacy and had installed Wiles as one of his senior campaign officials, raising the specter that federal law enforcement was effectively surveilling a live opposition campaign. For conservatives long wary of the national security bureaucracys bias, the idea that the FBI was mapping out communications between Trumps lawyers, advisers, and media allies only reinforces concerns that the so-called deep state is willing to bend rules to kneecap political opponents.
Another FBI record described how agents sought to pressure former Trump National Security Adviser Robert OBrien after he declined to sit for a voluntary interview. Im going through all of it, and it looks like OBrien is active in endorsing Republican candidates, a member of Smiths team wrote in February 2023, before asking, Can FBI please look at his social media and see if theres anything of relevance we would want to ask him about? Has he endorsed Trump again? Thanks.
That request suggests investigators were not merely interested in potential criminal conduct but were combing through OBriens political speech and endorsements for leverage, a tactic that would be deeply troubling in any constitutional republic that purports to protect free expression. The notion that a citizens support for Republican candidates, or for Trump specifically, could become a point of investigative pressure underscores why many on the right see these prosecutions as partisan lawfare rather than neutral justice.
According to a separate Just The News report, disgraced former CIA Director John Brennan also appears in the newly revealed documents, adding another controversial figure from the intelligence world to the mix. On 3 November 2023, FBI Washington Field Office (WFO) and Special Counsel personnel met with former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John BRENNAN at CIA Headquarters in McLean, Virginia, a typed FBI summary of the meeting reportedly read.
The purpose and substance of that meeting remain classified, but Brennans involvement is likely to inflame conservative skepticism, given his central role in promoting the discredited Trump-Russia collusion narrative and his history of partisan commentary. When a former CIA chief who helped drive years of unfounded suspicion about Trump is quietly consulting with prosecutors targeting the same man, it only deepens the perception that intelligence and law enforcement institutions have been weaponized against one side of the political spectrum.
As more details emerge from these declassified records, the central issue is no longer just whether Trump mishandled documents, but whether federal power has been systematically turned against a leading presidential candidate, his legal team, and his supporters. The revelation that investigators tracked calls involving protected by the First Amendment activities, scrutinized Republican endorsements, and met behind closed doors with figures like Brennan raises urgent questions about accountability, judicial oversight, and whether any meaningful safeguards remain to prevent the national security apparatus from becoming an arm of partisan politics.
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