Stephen Miller spoke at FBI counterterrorism training days before wife's cyberstalking charge

Left · 2White House homeland security adviser Stephen Miller spoke at a training conference for counterterrorism agents at FBI headquarters on Sept. 29, multiple sources told CBS News. 1 2 Left · 2Two days later, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston charged John A. Proia with one count of cyberstalking Katie Miller and her family; Proia has pleaded not guilty. 1 2 Left · 1Prosecutors accuse Proia of contacting Katie Miller more than 40 times by phone and text in August and September, and of texting her parents, including a message calling Stephen Miller "evil". 2

Left · 1According to a source briefed on the meeting and a senior FBI official, Miller told the agents the president's domestic terrorism initiative was personal to him because of the 2025 assassination of his friend Charlie Kirk, and that no threat case is too small, whether aimed at a congressman, a spouse, loved ones or a campus speaker. 1 Left · 1The training was attended by FBI assistant special agents in charge who specialise in counterterrorism, plus officials from IRS Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations and the Secret Service; it centred on National Security Presidential Memorandum-7, issued last fall, which directs the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force to coordinate a national strategy against domestic terrorism and political violence. 1 Left · 2Former Justice Department officials told CBS the appearance is not customary and breaks post-Watergate norms insulating criminal investigations from White House influence, and is further unusual because Miller is an alleged victim and potential witness in the Boston case. 1 2

Left · 2James Davidson, a former FBI agent who leads the nonprofit FBI Integrity Project, called Miller's presence and speech "a violation of an important norm", and former counterterrorism prosecutor Jeffrey Breinholt said politically connected relatives of victims have no right to "jawbone" FBI supervisors. 2 1 Left · 1The White House said Miller regularly interacts with law-enforcement agencies and is tasked with carrying out the president's executive order to "investigate, disrupt, and dismantle all stages of organized political violence and domestic terrorism"; an FBI spokesperson called him "a valued partner" in that work. 1 Left · 1In the days before the speech, Darren Cox, head of the FBI's Washington Field Office, transferred its two most senior counterterrorism agents after the Millers complained the agents were moving too slowly on the Proia investigation, sources told CBS; Bloomberg Law first reported the removals. 1

Left · 2White House officials said the Millers did not speak to the agents or request the change, and that FBI leadership decided the agents were "stifling investigations"; Cox said it was a field-office personnel decision and "any suggestion otherwise is false", and FBI Deputy Director Chris Raia said it rested on "a number of factors". 1 2 Left · 1CBS reported the Boston case is at least the second the Millers pressed the FBI to pursue: last year they sought an investigation of Arlington activist Barbara Wien, and Miller asked agents to go undercover in the neighbourhood group, but a magistrate judge twice rejected a search warrant and the state prosecutor declined to bring charges. 1 Left · 2The cyberstalking law Proia is charged under, 18 USC 2261A(2)(B), is not associated with terrorism offences; Raw Story, citing a RAND study, noted federal prosecutors filed 412 such cases nationwide from 2010 to 2020, fewer than 40 a year. 1 2