Two senior FBI counterterrorism officials were removed from their posts on Friday, according to people familiar with the move. Michael Burgwald, the special agent in charge of counterterrorism at the Washington Field Office, and his deputy Courtland Rae were reassigned.

The move followed the team’s finding that allegedly harassing phone calls to Katie Miller, a conservative podcaster and wife of senior White House adviser Stephen Miller, did not meet the threshold for an FBI investigation and had no link to terrorism. Sources said the Miller family was frustrated at the slow progress.

Darren Cox of the FBI’s Washington Field Office confirmed the removal but denied Director Kash Patel ordered it, calling it a personnel decision made at the field-office level. White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said senior FBI leadership found the officials were stifling investigations into serious threats.

Whether Patel personally ordered the move remains disputed, with sources and the official statement disagreeing, and the nature of the calls has not been published.