It may be the biggest political spy scandal in American history, far bigger than Watergate — and a new legal watchdog just revealed that former-President Joe Biden’s administration was behind it all.
Judicial Watch filed federal lawsuits Thursday against the Department of Justice and Office of the Director of National Intelligence after the agencies failed to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests about secret surveillance of Trump campaign adviser Michael Caputo, revealing what the watchdog group calls evidence that “the Biden FBI and Justice Department were spying on the Trump [2024 presidential] campaign.”
It’s Russiagate 2.0, critics say: A sequel bigger and more nasty than the first. The Biden administration issued a search warrant on Caputo’s Google email accounton September 21, 2023, just three weeks after he joined Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign as a communications strategist focused on the “Weaponization of Government.”
“The evidence shows that the Biden FBI and Justice Department were spying on the Trump campaign,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Caputo used his emails to help devise strategy for the Trump campaign, and the Biden gang was rooting through it all! The lawsuits show that the lawfare and spying against Trump was only paused. These records can’t be released soon enough.”
Caputo only discovered the surveillance when Google notified him on March 18, 2025, that his account had been monitored under a federal subpoena. In a bizarre twist, he learned about the investigation while serving as an advisor to the new U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin.
“I actually was notified that this was an investigation initiated by the US attorney in the District of Columbia while sitting in the office of the US Attorney for the District of Columbia,” Caputo recalled.
The surveillance occurred weeks after Caputo sent a campaign memo on August 4, 2023, outlining a strategy for federal government reform focused on transforming the DOJ, FBI, and other agencies.
“Come on,” Caputo said. “The future Director of the FBI? Dan Scavino, one of the President’s best friends, and a member of the campaign? As a member of the campaign, they popped me weeks after I sent a memo on how to pursue a Weaponization of Government policy. That’s a huge mop-up operation.”
Caputo is not alone in being targeted. At least ten Trump associates received similar surveillance notices, including current FBI Director Kash Patel, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, and Regulatory Czar Jeff Clark. The scope suggests a broader intelligence operation against Trump’s political network.
“If I know if there are ten, there are fifty,” Caputo said. “The one thing I’m sure of is, I don’t know everything.”
The classified subpoena demanded total access to Caputo’s digital life, including emails, subscriber information, billing records, Google wallet data, VOIP calls, and data transfer volumes, the lawsuit alleges.
Caputo’s ordeal began during the original Russia investigation when he was targeted for surveillance after FBI Director James Comey mentioned him in March 2017 congressional testimony. At the time, Caputo was in Moscow on business and learned about his inclusion while watching television coverage from a bar near the Kremlin.
“I lean over with both my hands on the wall, and I vomited all over the wall,” Caputo said. “I was retching for two or three minutes.”
Caputo said the Russiagate investigation wrecked him both financially and physically. He was forced to liquidate his children’s college fund to pay for legal representation, and developed head and neck cancer during the stress of the investigation.
“Russiagate almost killed me,” Caputo said. “It was 100% stress.”
Despite never being charged with any crimes, Caputo remained under suspicion over past business connections to Russia and his 2019 documentary “The Ukraine Hoax,” which intelligence agencies later claimed was Russian disinformation. Caputo insists the low-budget film contained “no Russian money for obvious reasons.”
The Biden-era surveillance is the latest in a pattern of spying on the Trump presidential campaign by Democratic Party leadership, critics said, and is only revealed only years later through cFreedom of Information Act litigation.
Tucker Carlson described similar treatment, saying “It was definitely part of Russiagate. The NSA read my texts and leaked the details to The New York Times. Ultimately they admitted it, but no one was ever punished.”
The massive Democratic surveillance extended beyond Trump’s inner circle, critics said. Air Marshals physically tailed current Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard under the TSA’s Quiet Skies program. Even congressional staff investigating Russiagate’s origins faced surveillance in leak investigations, the lawsuit claims.
Take a look —
MICHAEL CAPUTO: They spied on the 2024 campaign. We’re digging up proof they spied in 2016, and we're going to get to evidence of 2020. The FBI has had an investigation into me for 4+ years all for exposing Hunter & Joe Biden’s Ukraine cash. This is bigger than we ever thought. pic.twitter.com/6jltAw6lrP
— Bannon’s WarRoom (@Bannons_WarRoom) August 28, 2025
Judicial Watch’s lawsuits demanded a tidal wave of secret records, including all investigative reports mentioning Caputo, subpoenas issued to Google and other tech companies for his data, and communications between federal agencies regarding his case.
The watchdog organization has played a crucial role in exposing the original Russia investigation’s flaws through previous FOIA litigation. Judicial Watch uncovered evidence that the FBI misled FISA courts by withholding information about then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign funding of the Steele dossier and revealed extensive problems with the surveillance of Trump campaign associate Carter Page.
Previous Judicial Watch investigations revealed that FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page openly mocked Trump during the campaign and wrote texts about “stopping him” before his inauguration, that Christopher Steele had extensive relationships with Obama State Department officials, and that former Associate Deputy Attorney Bruce Ohr admitted that Steele told him that he was “desperate that Donald Trump not get elected.”
“Fifty years after Watergate, the idea of spying on aides to presidential candidates, Congressional staff, journalists, even candidates and presidents no longer shocks much of the country,” noted one analysis.
Caputo’s case represents what may be the most direct evidence yet of Biden-era intelligence operations targeting Trump’s 2024 campaign — making it potentially one of the biggest scandals in American history.