Two veteran FBI counterterrorism officials were demoted after investigators determined allegedly harassing calls to a top White House aide's wife did not warrant further investigation, according to multiple reports.

Michael Burgwald, who led counterterrorism operations at the FBI's Washington Field Office, and his deputy, Courtland Rae, were removed from their leadership positions Friday and reassigned to FBI headquarters.

The shakeup followed an investigation into allegedly threatening and harassing calls received by Katie Miller, a conservative podcaster married to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.

A field office team reviewed the calls but found they did not meet the threshold for an FBI investigation and identified no connection to terrorism, CNN reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

That conclusion reportedly caused friction with FBI leadership.

Bloomberg Law, which first reported the demotions, said Washington Field Office leadership was dissatisfied with the pace of the investigation and that the Miller family shared those frustrations. FBI Director Kash Patel was also displeased with the office's progress, according to the outlet.

The FBI and White House have pushed back on suggestions that the Millers or Patel ordered the personnel changes.

Washington Field Office chief Darren Cox said he made the decision himself.

"Director Patel did not order this decision," Cox said. "This was a personnel decision made at the Washington field office level alone based on our constant evaluation of mission needs."

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said the Millers had never met or interacted with Burgwald or Rae.

"Senior leadership at the FBI determined they were stifling investigations into very serious threats and made a unilateral decision to remove them," Bis said.

Details about the calls themselves have not been made public, leaving unclear what investigators reviewed or why they concluded the messages did not warrant further FBI action.

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The reassignments also remove decades of counterterrorism experience from the Washington office as the United States remains at war with Iran.

Burgwald is a West Point graduate who has received multiple attorney general's awards. Rae helped oversee the FBI's response to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Both officials also worked on investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The Millers and their children moved from their Virginia home into military housing last year amid what the White House has described as a campaign of stalking, doxing and threats against the family.

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AI Mode Conversation: What was the specific content of threats to Kathie Miller?

WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - FBI personnel data recently stolen by the ShinyHunters hackers includes sensitive psychiatric and medical ​evaluation records, according to the hackers and documents reviewed by Reuters.

ShinyHunters, one of the world's most notorious and attention-seeking hacking crews, first said ‌it had breached the FBI on Tuesday. In the hack, the group obtained granular details about bureau employees and their assignments, Reuters previously reported, including sensitive work against Chinese spies, Russian intelligence, drug cartels and others.

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The breach has already rattled the bureau, but now threatens to turn into a serious counterintelligence risk, said Eric O'Neill, a former FBI operative who founded the cybersecurity consultancy Nexasure AI.

O'Neill said the presence of ​medical data was a sign that the hack was approaching the same kind of magnitude as the 2015 intrusion into the Office of Personnel Management, which ​exposed millions of Americans' sensitive clearance information, allegedly to Chinese intelligence.

He added that the data would be a powerful magnet for ⁠hostile spies.

"I would be shocked if Russian intelligence isn't knocking on their door and saying, 'We want that stuff, hand it over,'" said O'Neill.

The FBI declined to comment on the ​records. In a statement issued Wednesday, the bureau said it was "aggressively investigating" the reported breach.

ShinyHunters circulated the medical files to a small circle of reporters earlier this week after announcing ​it had broken into the FBIjobs.gov site and stolen what it claimed was 2 to 3 terabytes of data.

Reuters was able to partially authenticate some of the half-dozen files in several ways, ​including running two social security numbers in them against credit bureau data, and lining up the date of a pre-employment mental health evaluation against a former FBI analyst's ​LinkedIn profile. Reuters also matched the name of an FBI psychiatrist in the document to a LinkedIn profile with the same name and an identical job title.

In one case, Reuters was able ‌to confirm with ⁠a person familiar with the matter that a medical professional listed in one of the documents as performing FBI evaluations was in fact doing so at the time, although the person could not authenticate the entire file.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter.

The psychiatrist and the FBI employees named in the data either did not return messages or declined comment.

DOCUMENTS INCLUDE MEDICAL SPECIFICS

The documents reviewed by Reuters range in sensitivity. One medical record, which was part of a "fitness for duty" ​exam given to prospective employees, noted that ​an applicant took aspirin daily and was ⁠allergic to dust and cats.

Another record said a potential employee exhibited "symptoms of depression" in high school. A third document carried an electrocardiogram result.

Reuters could not establish whether the limited number of documents viewed were representative of the rest of the data trove held ​by ShinyHunters, or whether there even were other documents.

An FBI advisory released in May said the group has in the past ​exaggerated its level of ⁠access in an attempt to extort its victims.

ShinyHunters told Reuters on Tuesday the data it had was "very very very sensitive" and included medical information, discharges, prescriptions, clinical visits, and "any health issues with Agents."

The hackers said they had compromised several of the bureau's internal services, including the FBI's background and employee applicant screening system, FBI MedLink, which contains agency personnel medical records, and ⁠the FBI's ​Background Investigation Contract Services unit. Reuters could not corroborate those specific allegations.

Initially, the group said it would ​hold the data hostage until the FBI retracted its May advisory, which it said it took exception to. Since then ShinyHunters has removed that defiant statement from its website, saying Thursday it would not comment on ​what it would do "if the victim does not comply with our kind request."

Story updated with context and additional detail in paragraphs 10 through 15

Reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington and AJ Vicens in Detroit; editing by Chris Sanders and David Gaffen

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Five men arrested near a key U.S. bomber base in the U.K. on Sunday may have planned a "complex," coordinated attack with potentially far-reaching security implications for American military installations globally, a former U.S. intelligence official warned.

As counterterrorism police investigated after officers detained the suspects near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, a former Pentagon official also said President Donald Trump will ultimately be the one to decide the consequences if indeed the "trail leads to Tehran."

The men were initially held on suspicion of offenses under Britain’s Explosives Act before being arrested on terrorism charges in connection with the airfield, a key U.S. Air Force hub and the primary European base for American strategic bombers.

On Sunday, Trump said U.S. authorities had been monitoring the suspects prior to their capture.

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"We had them under investigation," Trump told reporters in Chicago. "They were looking to do big damage to our fort."

"It may have been Scotland Yard. I don't know. We worked with a lot of them. We had them under view for a long time, and we got them," Trump added.

According to Sky News, counterterrorism police were investigating whether Iran is linked to the suspected bomb plot.

Former Trump White House official Morgan Murphy told Fox News Digital that British authorities are leading the investigation alongside U.S. law enforcement and intelligence.

"Every phone, bank record and rental receipt will be run through British and American intelligence, and if the trail leads to Tehran, it will be found," Murphy clarified.

"But as American airmen and bombers seem to have been the target, Air Force investigators on the base, the FBI in London, and American intelligence will likely all work the case."

"If conclusive evidence proves Iran is behind an attempted attack on U.S. forces, the American President will ultimately decide how Tehran pays," Murphy added.

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Former Defense Intelligence Agency official Andrew Badger told Fox News Digital the number of suspects and vehicles involved raised the possibility of a sophisticated operation.

"We are going to see elevated security protocols across Europe, across the U.K., and across the entire world for any U.S. installation," he said.

"This is a very significant threat, and again, seeing that we had five individuals involved and three different reported vans at the scene, this could have been a very complex, highly orchestrated operation," Badger added.

"This isn't just some type of amateur lone wolf operation," he said, noting Fairford’s strategic importance to the U.S. military. "Fairford is also where the U.S. houses its strategic bombers for Europe as well as the rest of the world."

He said a potential attack posed broader risks beyond the airfield itself which he said "could have had significant security implications. It could have damaged the nearby area."

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"They could have tried to use a VBIED or a vehicle-borne explosive device where the first van could have gone off at the front gate, and then the other vans would have gone in and tried to go for the strategic bombers," Badger said.

British authorities have not publicly identified who they believe was behind the suspected plot or announced a motive, but RAF Fairford had taken on greater strategic importance during the war with Iran.

The U.K. government previously authorized U.S. forces to use the Royal Air Force bases Fairford and Diego Garcia for limited defensive operations, including destroying Iranian missiles and launchers at their source.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) later warned that any base used to attack Iranian territory would be considered a legitimate target.

"Any base used to launch attacks on Iranian territory is a legitimate target for our forces," the IRGC said, according to reports.

"Tehran warned London in July to keep American bombers off Fairford, and if this plot traces back to Iran, the answer must be more bombers, not fewer," Morgan said.

IRAN EXPERT BRANDS ISLAMIC CENTER OF ENGLAND IRAN'S 'UK OFFICE,' URGES IMMEDIATE CLOSURE

A local councilor told Reuters there had been a recent security alert at Fairford and surveillance had been stepped up.

"So there was a specific threat about six weeks ago from the Iranians on this base. At the time, there was increased surveillance around the area," he told the outlet.

Badger, however, cautioned against assuming Iran was responsible while pointing to other potential threats.

"This could be Iran trying to gain strategic leverage in negotiations, but there are other actors as well," Badger added.

"But there's Russia, who's been launching a campaign of gray zone or hybrid warfare attacks across Europe, as well as Islamic extremists, which are still a significant threat here in the U.K."

"Was this some type of retaliation by Iran to perhaps try to gain leverage or to try to inflict a cost for the U.S. withdrawing from these negotiations? Again, we don't know for sure, but it is a possibility," Badger said.

Badger also pointed to RAF Welford, a major U.S. ammunition storage facility that primarily supports operations at RAF Fairford.

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"RAF Welford is actually the second-largest weapons and ammunition depot in all of Europe," Badger said, noting that the facility where the U.S. stores ammunition "could have been a target as well."

"Other bases across Europe, including European and U.S. partners, have already been on a heightened state of alert," Badger continued.

"But of course, after this attack, I think they're going to be in an even more heightened state. You're going to have more frequent security patrols."

"There are reports that RAF Fairford was put onto what's called the Delta alert, which is the highest state of security alert within the military base system," Badger said.

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"So this is basically that 'an imminent terrorist attack is inbound,'" he concluded.

Two FBI counterterrorism leaders have been demoted following complaints about the handling of an investigation into allegedly threatening phone calls made to Katie Miller, MAGA podcaster and wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, according to reports.

Head of the Washington Field Office’s counterterrorism division, Michael Burgwald, and his deputy, Courtland Rae, were both demoted and sent to bureau headquarters Friday, sources told Bloomberg Law. Both officials have years of national security experience, according to reports, and were also involved in investigating the January 6th, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

According to MS NOW, Burgwald was ousted after his office was askedto investigate alleged harassing phone calls made to Katie Miller. However, the team determined the alleged threats didn’t meet the threshold required for an FBI investigation, nor was a connection to terrorism identified, CNN reported.

“Harassing phone calls aren’t even in the ballpark of terrorism unless an actual terrorist is doing the dialing,” one former FBI official told MS NOW.

The decision not to investigate allegedly angered FBI leadership and Burgwald was already known to have a strained relationship with FBI Director Kash Patel.

According to MS NOW, Stephen Miller, who runs President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation campaign, and Patel were upset that Burgwald and Rae questioned the legitimacy of the investigation. Darren Cox, assistant director-in-charge of the Washington field office, ordered their removal.

CNN also reported that Burgwald and Rae were removed from their roles. Details about thealleged calls to Katie Miller were not shared by officials or the reports.

White House spokesperson Lauren Bistold The Independent that the Miller family has never interacted with or met the demoted FBI officials.

“Senior leadership at the FBI determined they were stifling investigations into very serious threats and made a unilateral decision to remove them,” Bis said.

Cox said Patel did not make the decision to oust the two veteran agents.

“Director Patel did not order this decision. This was a personnel decision made at the Washington field office level alone based on our constant evaluation of mission needs,” Cox posted in a statement on X Saturday. Any suggestion otherwise is false.”

The Independent has contacted the FBI for more information.

Since becoming head of the FBI, Patel has fired or demoted dozens of career employees including those who handled past investigations into Trump and his allies.

The Millers, who welcomed their fourth child in June, moved last fall from their Arlington, Virginia, home into military housing after a number of threats were allegedly made against them.