A man was arrested Thursday and charged with stalking former Trump administration adviser Katie Miller, in a case that prompted disagreements among high-level FBI officials and led to the demotions of two senior agents assigned to it.

John Anthony Proia III, 41, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston on one count of cyberstalking a “former political advisor and prominent member of the Republican Party,” the Justice Department said in a press release. The unnamed victims cited in the release are Miller and her husband, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, a DOJ official granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters told MS NOW.

Katie Miller, a conservative podcaster, received at least 40 “menacing” phone calls, text messages and voicemails from multiple phone numbers between Aug. 3 and Sept. 23, the DOJ said in its press release. The alleged harassment took place late at night and included several vulgar text messages sent to phone numbers associated with Katie Miller’s parents, decrying them for their daughter’s marriage to “evil” Stephen Miller, according to the DOJ.

“Did you raise her to be trash or did that just happen naturally?” read one text message allegedly sent to Katie Miller’s father.

In a post on X, Katie Miller thanked the DOJ and FBI for “keeping me and family safe,” adding that it was “good to see a Boston grand jury indict this man.”

Proia pleaded not guilty to the felony charge in an initial court appearance before a magistrate judge on Thursday.

“Today, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested John Proia for allegedly engaging in a sustained campaign of harassment to frighten this victim and her family, inflicting significant emotional distress,” Ted E. Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston division, said in a statement on Thursday. “Terrorizing someone isn’t some sick game, it’s a crime, which is why the FBI and our partners take it so seriously as we work to protect and serve everyone in our communities.”

The alleged harassment had caused strife within the FBI’s Washington field office. Two senior FBI counterterrorism supervisors were directed to conduct a threat assessment on a person believed to have been placing the phone calls to Katie Miller earlier this month, according to multiple sources who were granted anonymity to speak about the sensitive matter.

The unusual request was greeted with disdain inside the FBI, the sources said.

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

The special agent in charge of counterterrorism in the FBI’s Washington field office, Michael Burgwald, and his deputy, Courtland Rae, were ultimately demoted from their senior positions after they questioned the legality and legitimacy of the request, the sources said. Stephen Miller and FBI Director Kash Patel were displeased after Burgwald and Rae questioned the request, according to the sources. Each agent had decades of deep national security experience.

MS NOW was unable to reach Burgwald or Rae.

Darren Cox, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, denied that Patel ordered the decision to demote the two seasoned FBI agents, asserting it was “a personnel decision made at the Washington field office level alone.” The demotions were first reported by Bloomberg News.

Attorney General Todd Blanche celebrated the arrest in a post on X on Thursday, saying the alleged harassment “is criminal and will be treated as it should – with prosecution!”

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