Trump adviser Stephen Miller spoke to agents at recent FBI training on domestic terrorism, sources say

White House homeland security adviser Stephen Miller spoke at a training conference for counterterrorism agents at FBI headquarters just over a week ago, days before prosecutors criminally charged a man with making disturbing calls and texts to his wife, Katie, multiple sources told CBS News.

Miller told the agents that President Trump's initiative to counter domestic terrorism was personal to him, citing the 2025 assassination of his friend, conservative Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, according to a source who was briefed on the meeting and a senior FBI official.

The FBI official said that Miller's remarks reflect a broader push by federal law enforcement to try to get out ahead of mass-casualty events by stepping up investigations into cases involving threats and harassment because those crimes can be precursors to violence.

A White House official said that Miller's presence at the training was appropriate, given his role as homeland security adviser. In that capacity, he is tasked with carrying out Mr. Trump's executive order on countering domestic terrorism and political violence.

"As Homeland Security Advisor, Stephen Miller interacts with all law-enforcement agencies on a regular basis related to public safety, national security, and counterterrorism," a White House spokesperson told CBS News.

An FBI spokesperson called the executive order "a critical directive for this FBI's work to combat domestic terrorism and political violence threats all across the country."

But multiple former Justice Department officials told CBS News that his participation at an FBI training conference is not customary, and runs afoul of the post-Watergate norms that historically insulated the Justice Department's criminal investigations from political interference by the White House.

That role is further complicated by the fact that Miller and his wife have repeatedly asked the FBI's Washington Field Office to investigate political activists and others they allege have threatened or harassed them. In an unrelated case last year, Stephen Miller asked the bureau to allow agents to go undercover in his Virginia neighborhood's political activist group, several sources with knowledge of the matter told CBS News.

In the days leading up to Miller's appearance as a guest speaker at the terrorism training session, the two most senior counterterrorism agents in the FBI's Washington Field Office were transferred to other roles by its leader, Darren Cox, after the Miller family complained the agents were not moving swiftly enough on an investigation into a man in Massachusetts who was allegedly sending taunting texts and voicemails, sources told CBS News.

Two days after Stephen Miller made his presentation, 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.

White House officials have said that the Millers did not speak directly to the agents who were reassigned, nor did they ask for the personnel change.

In a statement provided by the FBI, Cox said: "This was a personnel decision made at the Washington field office level alone based on our constant evaluation of mission needs. Any suggestion otherwise is false."