Jack Smith’s Trump probe takes ‘Watergate’ turn as Wiles’ calls with journalists, lawyers emerge
WASHINGTON, DC: Newly released documents have revived scrutiny of former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Donald Trump after records showed investigators collected communications metadata linked to Susie Wiles while she was a senior Trump campaign official.
The material details contacts involving Wiles, including journalists, defense attorneys and political advisers.
Again: this is objectively a bigger scandal than Watergate. The main difference is that the Democrat establishment & media happily look the other way when the DOJ is used to spy upon Donald Trump’s campaign chief, with no regard for the dangerous precedent set.
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) October 5, 2026
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, responded Monday by calling the episode “objectively a bigger scandal than Watergate.”
The records concern activity from 2023, when Wiles was a private citizen and Trump campaign co-manager.
Newly released records detail Wiles contacts
The documents show FBI investigators used a pen register to track phone metadata associated with Wiles.
Such a device records information including telephone numbers and call timing rather than the contents of conversations, according to reporting on the newly released material.
At least five journalists and 21 defense attorneys appeared among the contacts reviewed by investigators, while the documents also referenced political advisers.
Several media organizations, including CNN, The Washington Post, Politico and Just the News, were identified in the records.
The investigation was known as “Plasmic Echo” and concerned Trump’s handling of classified documents.
FBI records also show investigators sent preservation requests on Feb. 3, 2023, to Google, Microsoft, MSN and Yahoo, asking the technology companies to preserve information associated with Wiles’ email accounts.
The newly released material does not establish that investigators accessed the contents of those emails through the preservation requests.
Watergate comparison intensifies partisan fight
Lee seized on the disclosures in a Monday post, arguing that the episode represented a serious abuse of federal investigative power.
His “bigger scandal than Watergate” characterization is his assessment, not a finding contained in the documents.
The release comes days after Republicans confronted Smith during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing over his handling of investigations involving Trump and his allies. The hearing took place on Sept. 29.
Smith defended the work of his office, saying investigators acted within Justice Department rules and that records obtained from lawmakers were relevant to the investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Democrats on the committee defended Smith’s conduct.
The Wiles records had already drawn attention earlier this year.
Reports from February stated that the FBI subpoenaed phone records belonging to Wiles and Kash Patel while both were private citizens in 2022 and 2023 during Smith’s investigation.
The records were toll data rather than call content.
Questions remain over scope and authority
The latest documents add detail about who appeared in the communications data but do not, by themselves, establish that Wiles was personally targeted because of her political role.
They also do not show that investigators listened to the calls identified through the pen register.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn separately sued Smith on Sept. 30 over the seizure of her cellphone toll records, alleging the collection was unlawful.
Smith has maintained that his investigations were legitimate and connected to criminal inquiries involving Trump.
The newly released documents are likely to keep that question at the center of the continuing congressional examination of Smith’s former investigations.
