Declassified documents show Biden's FBI tracked Trump family travel and doubted probable cause for the Mar-a-Lago raid, the White House calls it weaponization of law enforcement.
President Donald Trump on Monday declassified internal records from the Biden-era FBI that detail how agents monitored Trump family travel before the August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago and how field supervisors questioned the legal footing for that raid.
Fox News reported the files also show the bureau tapped the phone of Susie Wiles, now White House chief of staff, and tracked the movements of Melania Trump and Barron Trump. The White House on Tuesday labeled the episode a clear case of law enforcement turned against political opponents.
The records expose tension between the FBI Washington Field Office and Justice Department leadership under then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in the months before agents entered the Palm Beach, Florida, estate on Aug. 8, 2022. Field agents preferred talking to Trump's lawyers and recovering any classified records without a full search warrant. DOJ pressed for a broad warrant anyway.
Those same records now sit at the center of fresh scrutiny of how the Biden Justice Department handled the former president and his family after he left office.
Internal emails from May and June 2022 show the Washington Field Office mapping a possible timeline that could end in a search warrant, with a target date of June 6 that year. Even then, supervisors wanted an off-ramp.
A special agent in charge of the counterintelligence division wrote on May 24 that he and a colleague preferred to get the records without executing a search warrant if a path existed through other channels.
The agent put it plainly in the declassified exchange:
"[REDACTED] and I also agreed if there was a way to obtain the records via the [REDACTED], without the execution of the SW (search warrant), it would be preferable,"
Days later, on June 1-2, the same office again urged a conversation with the former president's attorney. Agents argued that even if the documents had been declassified, or were believed to be, they still needed proper securing while classification questions were sorted out. That talk, they said, could run alongside the investigation instead of forcing a raid.
One email stated the field office view directly:
"Even as we continue down the path towards a search warrant, WFO believes that a reasonable conversation with the former President's attorney, [REDACTED], ought not to be discounted,"
The Justice Department, according to the same records, showed little interest in those options.
By July 13, 2022, less than a month before the raid, an assistant special agent in charge at the Washington Field Office put the disagreement in writing. The field office did not believe it had established probable cause for a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago. DOJ lawyers disagreed and wanted a wide scope covering the residence, office, and storage space.
The assistant special agent wrote:
"WFO does not believe (and has articulated to DOJ CES), that we have established probable cause for the search warrant at Mar a Lago. DOJ has opined that they do, requesting the a wide scope including residence, office, storage space,"
The same email went further. If the real goal was to identify and recover classified records quickly to protect the information, the five weeks spent fixated on building probable cause for a warrant had been counterproductive.
The agent offered a simple next step: recontact the attorney and ask about any further documents. The Washington Field Office had made that suggestion to DOJ many times. DOJ persistently disagreed.
The email captured the frustration:
"Finally, if the goal is to identify and recover classified records quickly, so as to protect the information, the 5 weeks spent fixated on [probable cause for a search warrant] have been counterproductive,"
Agents then repeated the core recommendation: go through the former president's counsel as the most expedient way to recover everything. Leadership at Justice refused.
On Aug. 8, 2022, roughly a year and a half after Trump left office after his first term, FBI agents executed the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago. The action came after the internal warnings and the rejected alternatives laid out in the emails.
Special Counsel Jack Smith later brought 37 felony charges against Trump tied to alleged willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and false statements. A superseding indictment added three more counts: another retention charge and two additional obstruction counts. Trump pleaded not guilty. Smith dropped the case after Trump won the 2024 election.
Separate declassified material shows the FBI went beyond the estate itself. Agents tracked travel by Trump family members. They monitored movements of Melania Trump and Barron Trump. They also tapped the phone of Susie Wiles, who now serves as White House chief of staff.
The White House on Tuesday framed those steps as political spying, not ordinary investigative work. A statement issued after the declassification left little room for softer readings.
The White House said:
"Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple,"
A second line drove the accountability point home:
"This is further proof the Biden administration weaponized the DOJ to target political opponents. Those responsible must be held accountable."
The statement treated the newly public emails and tracking records as confirmation of a pattern many conservatives had already described: a Justice Department willing to override its own field agents when the target was Donald Trump.
The sequence is straightforward. In late May 2022 the Washington Field Office floated a warrant timeline. In early June it still pushed for talks with Trump's lawyer. In mid-July it stated it lacked probable cause and called the delay counterproductive. On Aug. 8 agents still raided the estate. Years later the special counsel case collapsed after voters returned Trump to office.
The declassified files do not show a field office eager for a high-profile search. They show agents recommending quieter recovery methods and documenting DOJ resistance to those methods. They also show surveillance that reached the former first lady, a teenage son, and a top campaign aide who later became chief of staff.
For readers who watched the Mar-a-Lago search unfold on live television and then watched the charges multiply, the internal emails supply the missing layer: the government's own counterintelligence supervisors saw a better path and said so in writing. Leadership chose the raid.
When field agents warn that probable cause is missing and still get ordered to search a former president's home, the public is right to demand answers. The documents are out. Accountability should follow.
