(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained 207 pages of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records that reveal the FBI’s concerns about the legal basis for the raid of then-former President Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. The records expose deep concerns within the FBI itself, including explicit objections from field agents who warned the U.S. Department of Justice that the unprecedented August 8, 2022, raid on Trump’s home lacked probable cause.
The documents were uncovered in response to a March 11, 2026, Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed with the FBI regarding the counterintelligence investigation codenamed Plasmic Echo—a “sensitive investigative matter” launched following a referral from the National Archives and Records Administration.
The records include a July 13, 2022, email between FBI field agents explicitly stating they did not believe probable cause existed to search Mar-a-Lago and urging the Justice Department to cooperate with Trump’s attorney instead of insisting on a raid
