Plasmic Echo was the codename for a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump's handling of classified and national defense-related government documents beginning in 2022, looking for possible violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice.
In November 2022, a special counsel investigation was launched to take over the FBI investigation, under the direction of Jack Smith, a special counsel appointed by United States Attorney General Merrick Garland.
On June 8, 2023, Trump was indicted on charges related to the documents in the Federal District Court in Miami. It was the first time a former U.S. president had faced federal charges. Trump was arraigned at the federal courthouse in Miami on June 13, 2023, on 37 criminal charges, pleading not guilty to all charges.
On November 25, 2024, Smith announced that he was seeking to drop all charges against Trump in the aftermath of Trump's victory in the 2024 United States presidential election.
Background of Trump's handling of records
During his term in office, Trump's attitude toward and handling of classified information had worried U.S. federal intelligence officials. His behavior led to mistrust in intelligence and law enforcement agencies who were also alarmed by Trump's mixing with guests during his frequent trips to Mar-a-Lago, viewing the practice as "ripe to be exploited by a foreign spy service eager for access to the epicenter of American power".
In December 2019, Trump spoke to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward privately in the Oval Office. Trump showed a photograph of himself with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, telling Woodward: "This is me and him. That's the line, right? Then I walked over the line. Pretty cool." Trump also showed Woodward letters that Kim had written to him, which the U.S. government had classified, adding: "And don't say I gave them to you, okay?" Woodward dictated the letters into his tape recorder, and in 2020, CNN published a transcript of two of these letters.
In 2021, Trump reportedly told close associates that he regarded some presidential documents, such as the correspondence with Kim, to be his personal property.
Destruction of presidential records Trump illegally and regularly shredded "both sensitive and mundane" papers while at the White House, at Mar-a-Lago, and on Air Force One, despite repeated admonishments from at least two of his chiefs of staff and from White House counsel. His aides had developed special practices and protocols early in his presidency to retrieve the piles of torn paper and attempt to tape documents back together with the help of staffers from the Office of the Staff Secretary or the Oval Office Operations team.
Not all materials were recovered; Trump White House staffers frequently used "burn bags" to destroy documents. On at least two occasions, Trump allegedly flushed documents down the toilet at the White House residence.
Departure from office Trump's presidential term ended at noon on January 20, 2021. His departure from the White House was "rushed and chaotic". In the last weeks of the Trump presidency, White House staff quit and aides resigned, leaving an increasing amount of work to a decreasing number of staff. A former Trump aide said they were "30 days behind what a typical administration would be", with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump taking little interest in the preservation of presidential records. The Wall Street Journal quoted a former aide as saying: "If you only start packing with two days left to go, you're just running low on time. And if he's the one just throwing things in boxes, who knows what could happen?"
The day before he left office, Trump designated seven senior Trump administration officials, including Meadows, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, and Deputy White House Counsel Patrick F. Philbin, "as his representatives to handle all future requests for presidential records" for compliance with the Presidential Records Act. Trump subsequently notified NARA to add Kash Patel, a former Trump administration official, and journalist John Solomon as "representatives for access to Presidential records of my administration".
Two years later, Trump admitted to taking classified documents from the White House during a televised response to a CNN reporter's questions. Trump said he had "every right" to take the documents and that he "didn't make a secret of it" at the time. "I took what I took," he said, falsely claiming that "it gets declassified". He also said that he "would have the right" to show the documents to others, but he claimed that he had not done so and could not recollect doing so.
Inter-presidency The US head of state does not hold a formal security clearance, and is neither "read in" nor "read out" of classified matters, but according to former chief of staff John F. Kelly, Trump should have received an exit briefing "in some hopes that he would not violate all these rules on classified materials. The important message would have been, 'Once you're not the president anymore, all the rules apply to you'".
At the beginning of his term in office, President Joe Biden barred Trump from receiving the courtesy intelligence briefings traditionally given to former presidents, citing Trump's "erratic behavior". This is the first time a former president's access to the classified briefings has been denied.
Origin and presidential transition
Following Trump's loss in the 2020 United States presidential election, talks began between the Trump administration and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) regarding transferring documents related to the Trump administration. Under the Presidential Records Act (), any presidential documents under the current administration must be transferred to the Archivist of the United States by the end of their term. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows informed the National Archives during this period that he would take care of the documents. On January 18, 2021, at least two moving trucks were spotted outside Mar-a-Lago, Trump's private residence in Palm Beach, Florida. Pictures were taken on the day of his departure showing boxes of materials that he had taken with him.
In May 2021, the National Archives became aware of missing documents. Among the missing material were correspondence letters with Kim Jong-un and a congratulatory letter from former President Barack Obama. On May 6, Gary Stern—the general counsel for the National Archives—emailed Trump's representatives, including Patrick F. Philbin, to inform them that such material was missing. In the email, Stern named Pat Cipollone as a witness to the documents, identifying two dozen boxes that were in the White House but had not been transferred to the National Archives. Scott Gast, a representative for Trump, responded to Stern by giving him a note informing him that Trump would return his correspondence letters with Kim, although Trump was unclear on how to proceed. An archive official recommended FedEx as a method of transferring the documents; Trump aides objected to this idea, and Trump did not return the letters. Trump displayed these letters to people in his office, leading to Meadows contacting Philbin in an effort to figure out how to facilitate the return of these documents.
Trump's lawyers informed the National Archives in December that they had found 12 boxes of documents at the Mar-a-Lago.
NARA retrieval of documents
In January 2022, the National Archives had begun a process to retrieve 15 boxes that were taken from the White House at the end of Trump's term to his private Mar-a-Lago estate, and successfully negotiated with Trump's lawyers in retrieving the documents. Among what was contained in the documents was classified information.
Following the discovery, the National Archives notified the Justice Department and the House Committee on Oversight and Reform began an investigation into the documents. The Justice Department instructed the National Archives not to share any more details about the documents to the committee, implying that the FBI was beginning a separate investigation. Of the documents retrieved by NARA from Mar-a-Lago, archivists and federal agents determined that 184 unique documents had classification markings, of which 25 were marked "top secret", 92 "secret" and 67 "confidential". Some materials were governed by special access programs (SAP), a type of protocol reserved for extremely sensitive U.S. operations conducted abroad, intended to significantly limit access to the information.
Investigation
Justice Department documents subpoenas In May 2022, the Justice Department subpoenaed the National Archives in an attempt to obtain the documents, and had interviewed several White House officials who were present in the days leading up to Trump's departure from the White House, seemingly confirming that the Justice Department was beginning a grand jury investigation into the documents. The Justice Department also subpoenaed Trump in May 2022 to return all documents with classification markings. Between May 11 and June 3, one of Trump's attorneys, Evan Corcoran, took detailed notes of conversations in which he explained to Trump that he would indeed have to turn over all documents with classification markings.
On June 3, the Justice Department sent counterintelligence chief Jay I. Bratt and three FBI agents to Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the documents requested in the subpoena and meet with Trump's legal team. At the meeting, Christina Bobb, the Custodian of Records for purposes of the subpoena, gave a signed letter to the Justice Department certifying that a diligent search had been conducted and all documents responsive to the subpoena were being turned over. Trump's lawyers also claimed that all the documents were stored in a single basement storage room on the property.
On June 8, Bratt emailed Trump's lawyers, telling them to put a stronger lock on the basement and to keep all documents "preserved in that room in their current condition until further notice".
On June 19, Trump wrote to NARA, telling them that former Trump administration official Kash Patel, as well as journalist John Solomon, should be considered "representatives for access to Presidential records of my administration".
Mar-a-Lago security footage subpoena On June 22, the Justice Department subpoenaed Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage, which reportedly showed people putting boxes into other containers and moving them out of the basement storage room.
The FBI suspected violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice due to information from "a significant number of civilian witnesses", as stated in an affidavit. This affidavit was used to obtain a search warrant.
FBI search of Mar-a-Lago
Having uncovered multiple sources of evidence that more classified documents remained at Mar-a-Lago and "government records were likely concealed and removed from the storage room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government's investigation," the Justice Department sought a warrant to search Mar-a-Lago from a federal magistrate judge in early August 2022.
On August 8, 2022, the FBI executed the search warrant on Mar-a-Lago. Thousands of government documents were seized, some with classification markings: top secret/sensitive compartmented information (TS/SCI), top secret, secret, and confidential. TS/SCI is the highest possible classification and is supposed to be read exclusively in secure government facilities. One document was reported to be so secret, only six people had the legal authority to view it.