Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,
Newly declassified memos released Oct. 5 by the White House show former special prosecutor Jack Smith and FBI agents during the Biden administration monitored President Donald Trump's campaign manager's phone and tracked First Lady Melania Trump and her son Barron Trump's travel ahead of the 2022 raid on Mar-a-Lago in search of sensitive documents.
FBI agents tracked Trump's co-campaign manager Susie Wiles's calls using a pen register device, which records all outgoing phone numbers dialed from a monitored number, and a trap-and-trace device, which records all incoming numbers, according to the memos.
Agents sent detailed reports about when Trump's defense lawyers would call Wiles, if the calls were missed or returned, and the duration of the conversations. They even tracked when one lawyer would attempt to call while Wiles was on the phone with another person.
The agents also reported when Melania Trump called Wiles, which phone the first lady used, and the length of the call.
The White House responded to the memos, calling the findings an abuse of power.
"Jack Smith's surveillance operation was a disgraceful abuse of government power," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. "Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple. Those responsible must be held accountable."
In one document detailing a timeline of tasks to complete on or before May 31, 2022, for Washington Field Office agents assigned to the operation, a line item stated they planned to finalize the FBI's understanding of Melania and Barron Trump's travel, and which type of aircraft they would use. The agents also planned to finalize coordination among the FBI, Department of Justice (DOJ), and Secret Service in the Miami and West Palm Beach jurisdictions before the Aug. 8 raid on Mar-a-Lago, President Trump's estate in Palm Beach.
The memos included a few attempts by the special agent in charge of the counterintelligence division at the Washington Field Office to get the documents at Mar-a-Lago without serving a search warrant.
On July 13, 2022, one month before the raid, a memo shows FBI agents reported they were having difficulty speaking with anyone with knowledge of records being stored at Mar-a-Lago and concluded they didn't have enough information for a search warrant.
"[The Washington Field Office] does not believe (and has articulated to DOJ CES), that we have established probable cause for the search warrant at Mar a Lago. ... 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 of a search warrant have been counterproductive," the assistant special agent in charge of counterintelligence in Washington reported in the memo.
Approval for the investigation appeared to come from the top of the DOJ. On a March 24, 2022, memo by FBI Director Christopher Wray to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, Monaco initialed the memo with a note to then Attorney General Merrick Garland, saying "Merrick, I recommend you approve, Lisa 3/25/22."
Wray noted he was required to get written approval from the attorney general, through the deputy, before opening any investigation of a declared candidate for president or vice president, a presidential campaign, or a senior presidential campaign staff member or adviser.
The memos were part of Operation Plasmic Echo, the FBI's codename for the criminal investigation into Trump's alleged retention of classified and national defense documents from his first presidential term at Mar-a-Lago.
The president was never found guilty of retaining the sensitive documents at his Florida estate. A judge ruled that special counsel Smith's appointment and funding were unconstitutional and dismissed his case.
Smith eventually dropped the federal prosecution after Trump was reelected in November 2024.
Tyler Durden Tue, 10/06/2026 - 09:20Yemen's Ansar Allah movement, or Houthis, have over the past 48 hours been targeting airports along with Aramco sites within Saudi territory, and have warned further that civilian infrastructure will increasingly be fair game in retaliation for the Saudi blockade imposed on Yemen.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree also declared Tuesday that this is the result of the ongoing Saudi bombing campaign. The kingdom's Abha International Airport in the southwest of the country has come under fresh missile attack on Tuesday.
"We reiterate our warning to all international airlines regarding the consequences of continuing to operate flights within Saudi airspace, as it has become a theatre for our military operations - with the exception of the airspace over the Holy Sites in Mecca and Medina," the Iran-aligned rebel group said in a statement.
File image, via SaudiAutoThe Saudi government didn't immediately confirm the attack, but it follows Monday night attacks on airports in Jazan and Najran with several injuries and damage reported, according to Al Jazeera. Riyadh and its international airport were also targeted.
While King Khalid International Airport saw flight delays and gate closures, there's been no official confirmation of damage there, other than some open source claims of possible destruction. But casualties have been reported at the other airports. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Airport, a dual-use airport in the Red Sea city of Jazan, and Najran International Airport, were damaged in the strikes. Three people were wounded, the agency said.
The Houthi military spokesman has newly decalred of Abha International Airport in Asir province that ballistic missile "was precise and direct … resulting in the disruption of air traffic at the airport."
NEW: Ansar Allah (Houthis) have struck MULTIPLE Saudi Airports in the last 24 hours to include: Jizan Airport Abha Airport Najran Airport Riyadh Airport (likely) Jizan and Najran have been confirmed explicitly by the Saudi Civil Defense, and Abha has been stated as struck by Ansar Allah’s spokesperson. Riyadh is speculative but based on multiple flight holding patterns yesterday, alongside previously successful strikes and reports from the AFP of “major explosions heard”, it is likely hit as well. Four airports, one day.
— Brett Erickson (@BrettErickson28) October 6, 2026Saree further said in statement on X, "We reiterate our warning to all global airlines regarding the consequences of continuing to operate their flights in Saudi airspace, as it has become a theatre for our military operations."
Hundreds of Saudi coalition aerial attacks have unfolded in Yemen this week, and the Houthis are now making clear they intend to unleash their missiles and drones directly on the kingdom in return.
Several international reports have cited Saudi coalition progress in retaking territory along Yemen's Red Sea coast.
"Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces staged a lightning advance on Monday to retake the coast around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait up to the city of Mocha, the government said, pushing the Iran-backed Houthis out of most of the areas they seized last month," Reuters writes. Armored convoys have been spotted moving up coastal highways.
⚡️JUST IN: More Saudi Aramco's Fuel Tanks have been hit by Yemen's Houthis in the Capital Riyadh In addition Jizan and Najran Airports have been Hit from Yemen https://t.co/uF77VOejeP
— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) October 6, 2026However, many of these reports rely on military officials from one side or the other, amid a fog of war situation where it's hard to assess which claims are true or possibly exaggerated.
The Houthis taking the war directly to Saudi territory sets up the greater possibility of Pakistani or Turkish military intervention in support of Riyadh based on the Mecca Defense Pact.
Among neighboring regional countries, Jordan has been among the first to condemn the 'war on the airports' and against energy sites, with Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi having in a phone call to his Saudi counterpart "affirmed Jordan’s absolute solidarity with Saudi Arabia in confronting the Houthi aggressions, and its absolute support for all measures it takes to protect its security, stability, sovereignty, and the safety of its citizens."
Looks like Saudi sent a ton of forces down the Yemen coast on a suicide mission for a good headline. As we said on the show this morning, grabbing territory with armored vehicles and air cover is doable, holding it is the challenge, and there seems to be no plan for that
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) October 6, 2026In Europe, Ursula von der Leyen says the EU stands with Saudi Arabia in the wake of the attacks on the kingdom. "These attacks keep destabilizing the region, igniting further violence, and undermining global energy security," she wrote on X. "We stand in solidarity with Saudi Arabia and our Gulf partners." She laid out that as European Commission President regional security "will be at the heart" of upcoming October meetings between EU and Gulf Cooperation Council leaders.
Tyler Durden Tue, 10/06/2026 - 09:00Masked attackers set fires at the doors of a Paris vocational high school Monday, confining about 100 students and staff inside, as nationwide student protests over school conditions entered another week with thousands already arrested and hundreds reported injured.
At the Nicolas-Louis Vauquelin High School in the 13th arrondissement, Principal Carole Zerbib said a group of about 10 people in hoods, masks and black clothing arrived around 7:50 a.m. as students were arriving. She told BFMTV they looked "very determined, very fast," and that staff "immediately understood that we were not going to be able to talk with them."
Zerbib said the group threw full trash bins and other flammable material in front of the entrance, brought a sofa and bicycles to barricade the door, smashed glass with a pair of crutches, and set fires outside using a flammable liquid. A staff member was struck in the face by a shard of glass, BFMTV reported. Firefighters and police were met with mortar fire. Courses were canceled for the day.
A video team from BFMTV recorded flames at the entrance and described staff being blocked as they tried to use an extinguisher, with the principal heard telling confined students to move up to the first floor.
🇫🇷🚨 BREAKING: Rioters set fire to the entrance of Vauquelin High School in Paris and blocked the exits when staff tried to put the fire out.
A film crew recorded the terrifying attempted murder.
"The school staff was unable to put out the fire. The rioters blocked them just as the extinguisher nozzle came out; they blocked the exit."
"The fire continues. You see all the silhouettes moving behind it; they continue to feed this fire, making it stronger and stronger. The school staff is not even going to try to put it out anymore; they can't manage it. We can hear the principal here asking the hundred confined students to step back and move up to the first floor."
The building was full of staff, students, and journalists, but these rioters appear ready to kill anyone still inside the vocational chemistry school.
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In the video sequence, a BFMTV host stated: "The school staff was unable to put out the fire. The rioters blocked them just as the extinguisher nozzle came out; they blocked the exit." The staff speaking from inside the building confirmed they were "under siege."
Principal Carole Zerbib said, "It was terrible for the students and the staff, who witnessed an outburst of violence...I think we had rarely seen violence this strong in front of us."
She said the attackers "were quite organized and had prepared their move," and that she had been warned by students and teachers of calls on social media to burn the school. "These aren't my students. These are groups."
Junior Interior Minister Jean-Didier Berger, speaking on BFMTV after the fires were put out and the school evacuated, called the images "particularly shocking" and said, "These are criminal acts that fall under the law and must be repressed in the harshest way."
Outside the damaged school, Zerbib took questions from reporters, then stopped when she saw a CNews microphone.
"Which outlet is that?" she asked. When she was told it was CNews, she said, "Oh no, I had said no." When the journalist replied that it was the press, she said: "I don't agree. Because I don't agree with CNews's editorial line. I think you don't do any good. You don't do any good for young people."
🇫🇷🔥 BREAKING: Another major school arson attack at Blaise Pascal High School in the French city of Rouen.
The entire entrance is currently in flames.
School staff can only stand and watch it burn.
Follow: @RMXnews https://t.co/CZ8h1aDO3U
She had earlier told other reporters that as long as police remained outside, "I tell myself it will be all right," while adding it was "not impossible that they come back, since they want to strike at the symbols of the state."
The clash came as Education Minister Édouard Geffray said classes would be fully or partly suspended Monday at 400 to 500 of France's roughly 3,700 high schools because safety conditions were not met. He said 24 schools had been burned or ransacked since the protests spread from the Paris region in mid-September. Organizers have called a further day of action Tuesday, which student unions have labeled "act III."
Geffray said Sunday that 78 education staff members had been injured since the unrest began, including "some of them by high schoolers." In addition, 170 students had been hurt. He said far-left activists had "hijacked" the movement. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has said more than 5,000 people have been arrested since last Monday, about 85 percent of them minors, and that more than 300 officers and gendarmes have been injured. Police recorded 1,747 arrests on Friday alone, he told TF1.
Among the cases already opened include a 17-year-old was arrested on suspicion of attempted homicide after a police officer was beaten in Belfort, and a 16-year-old was detained Sunday over the assault of a 59-year-old teacher in La Ciotat who was struck and doused with gasoline.
In Tours, prosecutors said a young protester lost sight in one eye while battling with police.
Students and the Union syndicale lycéenne say they are protesting against reduced teaching staff, overcrowded classes, long schedules, the Parcoursup admissions system and buildings in disrepair. The government has called some of those complaints legitimate while condemning what Nuñez has described as a slide into "riot and urban violence."
🇫🇷🔥 BREAKING: A French physics teacher was doused with gasoline today (Oct. 2) while trying to put out a fire students had lit near a tree in La Ciotat.
The teacher was reportedly temporarily blinded, according to French news reports, when the gasoline was thrown into his eyes.
Youths then began kicking the physics teacher.
The main suspect was reportedly arrested.
Yesterday in Marseille, youths are being investigated for attempted murder after dousing a principal and a vice-principal with gasoline during an attempted arson outside a high school administrative office.
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