2 senior FBI agents fired due to investigation linked to Trump advisor's wife

- Two veteran FBI agents overseeing counterterrorism operations in the nation's capital have been relieved of their jobs and reassigned to handle the investigation involving Katie Miller, the conservative podcast host and wife of senior White House adviser Stephen Miller, according to two people familiar with the move. The sources said that Michael Burgwald, the special agent in charge of counterterrorism affairs in the FBI's Washington field office, and his deputy, Courtland Wray, were fired from their positions by the bureau's leadership, after investigators determined that the alleged phone calls Katie Miller received from unidentified individuals did not warrant further investigation.

The field office team that reviewed the reported harassment calls determined that they did not meet the minimum threshold required for an FBI investigation, and no terrorism connection was identified, the sources said. This decision was not well received by the office's leadership, and two senior field office employees were removed from their positions.

Since taking office last year, FBI Director Kash Patel — a staunch loyalist of President Donald Trump — has fired, demoted or forced the retirement of countless career employees who handled previous investigations into Trump and his allies. Many of those who were forced to resign have filed lawsuits demanding that they be reinstated.

In a statement on the FBI's official "Rapid Response" social media account, created to promote the agency and respond to critics, Darren Cox, the senior executive who oversees the FBI's D.C. office, confirmed the firing of Borgwald and Wray, but denied that the order had come from Patel. “This was a personal decision made at the Washington field office level alone, based on our ongoing assessment of mission needs, and any suggestion otherwise is false,” Cox said.

Ofoq News is seeking contact information for both Burgwald and Ray. Informed sources said that the decision to remove them from their positions angered many ordinary FBI employees, who criticized personal moves related to employees, and considered them highly politicized.

Borgwald graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and received FBI investigative awards, while Wray similarly rose through the ranks of the organization after a long career in national security, the sources said. Bloomberg Law was the first to report the news that the senior officials were being reassigned to other tasks.

Ofuk News reached out to the White House for comment. In a statement to Bloomberg Law, White House spokeswoman Loren Pace said that Stephen and Katie Miller had no interaction with Borgwald or Wray, and added: “The FBI’s senior leadership concluded that they were stifling investigations into very serious threats and made a unilateral decision to remove them.”

However, there is a history of the Millers expressing dissatisfaction with the FBI's handling of personal incidents that they considered to be threatening in nature. According to people familiar with an incident last year, the couple became angry with FBI officials because agents opposed using the bureau's resources to investigate fliers critical of Stephen Miller that were posted in the family's neighborhood.

Like many senior Trump officials, the couple later moved into military housing.