On an otherwise quiet evening of minimal posting, President Donald Trump shared an article with the headline: "Jack Smith Spied on Trump Staffer's Communications and 20+ Lawyers: Report." His post included no additional commentary.
The post linked to an Oct. 5 story in USA Journal by Frank Bojazi. It said investigators tracked Susie Wiles's phone and emails while she helped run Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. Wiles is now White House chief of staff.
USA Journal based its story on FBI memos released by the Trump administration. The memos show that from about February to May 2023, investigators used a pen register and trap-and-trace order for Wiles' phone as part of Plasmic Echo, Jack Smith’s Mar-a-Lago classified-documents investigation.
The pen register and trap-and-trace processes collect "non-content routing data," meaning numbers dialed or received and call times and lengths. The records do not show what Wiles and her contacts discussed, which would not have been captured by the techniques used by Smith. The article shared by Trump also described the collected information as "metadata only, not content."
The files were posted as a downloadable ZIP file on the White House website.
The records identify the FBI's Washington Field Office and Smith's office in connection with the request, but do not show that Smith personally ordered it. Smith was appointed in November 2022 to oversee investigations into Trump’s handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Trump has accused Smith of spying before. In October 2025 he wrote that Smith and others "spied on Senators and Congressmen/women, and even taped their calls." One week ago, Trump shared an article on social media about Sen. Marsha Blackburn suing Smith over a subpoena for her phone records.