By Steve Neavling
It sounds like the name of a teenager’s rock band.
But “Plasmic Echo” was the FBI’s code word for its investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents.
The name was disclosed in unredacted court filings published Monday in the special counsel’s criminal case against Trump, The New York Times reports.
The records, which summarized the bureau’s initial review of the documents received by the National Archive, also revealed that one of Trump’s associates emphatically urged him to return the materials.
“Whatever you have, give everything back — let them come here and get everything,” the unnamed associate told Trump, according to the person’s interview with the FBI. “Don’t give them a noble reason to indict you, because they will.”
His associate was correct. Less than two years later, Trump was charged with violating the Espionage Act in a case that alleges he illegally retained more than 30 highly classified documents and thwarted the government’s efforts to retrieve them.
