{"id":433921,"date":"2026-01-28T02:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T02:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/433921\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T02:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T02:33:09","slug":"stephen-miller-acknowledges-possible-breach-of-protocol-before-alex-prettis-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/433921\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Miller acknowledges possible breach of protocol before Alex Pretti\u2019s shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Top White House aide Stephen Miller said Tuesday that officials were evaluating why Customs and Border Protection agents in Minneapolis \u201cmay not have been following\u201d proper protocol before the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti<\/a> \u2014 a remarkable acknowledgment of possible wrongdoing from one of the Trump administration\u2019s most influential and hardline operators on immigration enforcement.\n <\/p>\n

\n In a statement to CNN, Miller said the White House had \u201cprovided clear guidance to DHS that the extra personnel that had been sent to Minnesota for force protection should be used for conducting fugitive operations to create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The statement marked perhaps one of the most notable shifts in messaging to date on Pretti\u2019s shooting, from one of the administration\u2019s most hawkish messengers. In the aftermath of the shooting, Miller labeled the Veterans Affairs ICU nurse a \u201cwould-be assassin,\u201d while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed he \u201ccommitted an act of domestic terrorism.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Video, though, soon showed that Pretti was swarmed by law enforcement and disarmed before he was fatally shot<\/a>. And President Donald Trump directly contradicted Miller\u2019s characterization on Tuesday and said he hadn\u2019t heard the domestic terrorist rhetoric.\n <\/p>\n

\n Miller told CNN in the statement: \u201cThe initial statement from DHS was based on reports from CBP on the ground.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n On the day of the shooting, Noem was in near constant touch with White House officials, including Miller, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump had been privately defending an officer the department said pulled the trigger (DHS has since indicated two officers fired<\/a>). And Noem was given guidance from multiple White House officials on how she should talk about the shooting during her press conference later that evening, including suggesting \u2014 falsely, it would turn out \u2014 Pretti had been \u201cbrandishing\u201d a weapon, the sources said. Miller\u2019s involvement in the discussions was first reported by Axios<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Noem briefed the White House officials on the defiant tone she planned to take, making clear she would defend agents on the ground. At the time, sources said, she and the White House were in lockstep.\n <\/p>\n

\n Now, though, the messaging is coming under scrutiny, as Trump seeks to distance himself<\/a> from those in his own administration. On Tuesday, the president struck a more conciliatory tone<\/a> over the shooting in Minnesota as he appeared to break with both Noem and Miller.\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN previously reported that some administration officials were left deeply frustrated over how controversial border official Gregory Bovino and Noem handled the fallout from the fatal shooting over the weekend. According to one official, Trump spent several hours on Sunday and Monday watching news coverage and was personally unhappy by how his administration was coming across.\n <\/p>\n

\n But multiple sources said that neither Miller\u2019s nor Noem\u2019s jobs were at risk, despite the fallout. Of Miller in particular, one White House official told CNN that Trump \u201cis hesitant to talk about getting rid of someone who has been here a few weeks, let alone someone who has been with him for more than 10 years. It\u2019s not even on his radar.\u201d Trump said publicly Tuesday that Noem would not step down, adding that she was \u201cdoing a very good job.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump said in a Fox News interview Tuesday that he now plans to \u201cde-escalate\u201d the situation in Minnesota amid growing Republican discomfort over the shooting and its aftermath. He noted he had sent in border czar Tom Homan to replace Bovino<\/a> as the leader of operations on the ground.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a pullback \u2014 it\u2019s a little bit of a change,\u201d Trump told Fox News during a live interview in Iowa. \u201cEverybody in this room that has a business, you know, you make little changes. You know Bovino is very good, but he\u2019s a pretty out-there kind of a guy, and in some cases, that\u2019s good, maybe it wasn\u2019t good here.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top White House aide Stephen Miller said Tuesday that officials were evaluating why Customs and Border Protection agents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-433921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}