In August 2025, the Office of Government Ethics issued certificates of divestiture for Stephen Miller, his wife, Katie Miller, and three children’s accounts, determining that the sale of a defined list of individual stocks was reasonably necessary to comply with federal conflict-of-interest law. Two days later, Miller’s periodic transaction report listed 27 sales of those names. On his later annual disclosure, he recused himself from official matters pertaining to his wife’s employment and from official action pertaining to an xAI asset.
That official file does not show a sale of every holding. Other assets, including Spotify shares, xAI, Rushmore Ventures Inc. and Hot Water Holdings, remained on the report covering 2025, with the employment and xAI items handled by recusal.
This week, in Miller’s first week as White House chief of staff, the Office of the Chief of Staff required staff to get prior approval from the Office of White House Counsel before meeting registered lobbyists on the White House complex about government policy, Politico reported.
President Donald Trump named Miller the 33rd White House chief of staff on Nov. 6, 2026, effective Nov. 9. Miller had been deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser. Politics Elections reported the appointment.
The certificates and the 27 sales
On Aug. 12, 2025, OGE issued certificates numbered OGE-2025-174 through OGE-2025-178, signed by Maura K. Leary, acting chief of the Ethics Law and Policy Branch. The certificates named Stephen N. Miller, Katie Miller as his spouse, and three dependent children’s accounts, with Katie Miller listed as custodian. Each certificate states that OGE determined the divestiture of the described property was “reasonably necessary to comply with 18 U.S.C. § 208, or other applicable Federal conflict of interest statutes, regulations, rules, or executive orders.”
Two days later, on Aug. 14, Miller’s OGE Form 278-T listed 27 sales of the corresponding stock names, including Amazon, Intel, CrowdStrike, Palantir, MP Materials, Microsoft and others. He signed the report on Aug. 29, 2025. A White House ethics official later certified it, and OGE certified it on Nov. 25, 2025. The White House disclosures page posts the OGE-certified file. The individual stocks named on the certificates do not reappear as year-end holdings on his annual report covering 2025.
| Date | What the record shows | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Jan. 20, 2025 | Miller is appointed deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser. | New-entrant 278e |
| Aug. 12, 2025 | OGE issues certificates of divestiture 174–178 for Stephen Miller, Katie Miller and three children’s accounts. | Certificates |
| Aug. 14, 2025 | Miller’s transaction report lists 27 sales of the certified stock names. | OGE Form 278-T |
| Dec. 19, 2025 | The annual report later lists a spousal purchase of xAI, $500,001 to $1,000,000, with a recusal note. | 2026 annual 278e |
| June 28, 2026 | Miller signs the annual report covering 2025, with recusals from his wife’s employment and from xAI. | 2026 annual 278e |
| Nov. 6, 2026 | President Trump names Miller chief of staff, effective Nov. 9. | White House release |
| Nov. 8, 2026 | Katie Miller says she is stopping new episodes of her podcast. | @KatieMiller, via Mediaite |
| Nov. 9, 2026 | According to The Atlantic, she left SpaceX, sold SpaceX shares and ended a planned Paramount agreement; an official said recusals were lifted. | The Atlantic, via Mediaite |
| Nov. 12, 2026 | The Office of the Chief of Staff requires prior Counsel approval for lobbyist meetings on the complex. | Politico |
Dates and descriptions are from the official filings and attributed news accounts cited in each row.
Recusals, and what remained on the report
Miller’s annual disclosure covering 2025, which he signed June 28, 2026, and which White House ethics official Scott F. Gast certified on Sept. 3, 2026, still listed other assets after the August sales. Those holdings included cash, U.S. Treasury bonds, municipal bonds, a mutual fund, Spotify shares, Rushmore Ventures Inc., Hot Water Holdings, described as “Production/Podcast” with a value “not readily ascertainable,” and xAI.
On that form, Miller stated that he had recused himself from official matters involving his wife’s work, “pursuant to consultation with and guidance from White House ethics officials.” The recusal note on Rushmore Ventures Inc., listed as a source of her business income, reads: “Filer has been recused from participating in official matters pertaining to his spouse’s employment, pursuant to consultation with and guidance from White House ethics officials.”
xAI is listed on the same report as a spousal asset, in one line at $100,001 to $250,000 and in another at over $1,000,000, plus a Dec. 19, 2025, purchase of $500,001 to $1,000,000. The endnote on the $100,001-to-$250,000 line says he “has been recused from all official action pertaining to this asset prior to the reporting period.” The endnotes on the over-$1,000,000 line and on the December purchase say he has been recused from all official action pertaining to the asset “since prior to the reporting period.”
Katie Miller does not appear as her own filer on the White House disclosures page. She appears on Stephen Miller’s reports as his spouse, and on the certificates as an eligible person and as custodian for the children’s accounts. On the annual report, her IRA is listed with Spotify shares and cash.
According to The Atlantic
According to The Atlantic, in a Nov. 9, 2026, account reported by Mediaite, Katie Miller left SpaceX, sold her shares in the company, relinquished unvested stock compensation and ended a planned Paramount podcast agreement. An unnamed White House official told the magazine: “Stephen Miller is no longer subject to any recusals and may fully participate in all meetings and policy matters.”
Those reported changes do not appear in a later official ethics filing on the White House disclosures page as of Nov. 13, 2026. The last certified annual report was signed June 28 and certified Sept. 3, 2026, and still states the recusals.
On Nov. 8, the day before Miller started as chief of staff, Katie Miller posted that she was stopping new episodes of The Katie Miller Podcast:
I make every decision based on what’s best for my children and our family.
With @StephenM taking on this new role for President Trump, I’ve decided to stop recording new podcast episodes.
Nothing is more important than raising our four kids. While I’ve loved the podcast, the time commitment is too great and now is the time to step away.
I’ll be cheering President Trump and his team on from outside the administration.
I will be airing the two previously taped episodes.
— @KatieMiller, Nov. 8, 2026, as reported by Mediaite
That post does not mention stocks, SpaceX or Paramount, and it is not a documented sale or dissolution of Hot Water Holdings.
Prior approval for lobbyist meetings
On Nov. 12, during Miller’s first week as chief of staff, the Office of the Chief of Staff issued a memorandum to White House Office staff, signed by Alina Bulazel, deputy assistant to the president and director of that office. Politico first obtained the memo.
The rule, as quoted from a public photograph of the text reported by IANS, is: “White House staff must receive prior approval from the Office of White House Counsel for meetings on the White House complex with registered lobbyists related to government policy.” The memorandum says the Office of Public Liaison “will continue to serve as the primary point of contact for engagement with external stakeholders.” IANS, working from that photograph, notes that the document itself does not use the word ban, and that the visible text does not address off-site meetings or contacts with people who are not registered lobbyists.
The memo, as quoted by Politico, also says: “No President in history has fought more relentlessly, selflessly or courageously for the American People than President Trump. Following his example, White House staff are expected to dedicate their time unwaveringly to the working people of the nation.”
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Politico: “President Trump’s loyalty is to the American people, not lobbyists.”
Hunter Morgen, a lobbyist at Ballard Partners who worked with Miller in the first Trump administration, told Politico: “The thing with Stephen is, he’s not someone that a lobbyist goes in and has to crack or try to win over.” He added: “He doesn’t operate based on relationships. He operates based on policy outcomes that will advance the president’s agenda.”
A shift from the Wiles era
The prior-approval rule issued this week from the Office of the Chief of Staff tightens lobbyist access on the complex after the tenure of Miller’s predecessor, Susie Wiles. On Nov. 6, 2026, President Trump named Miller chief of staff, succeeding Wiles, and said she would be moving to the Trump Political Operation, according to a White House release and his Truth Social post as reported by CNBC. Miller’s start date was Nov. 9. Wiles said the same day that Friday was her last day in the job, Just the News reported. Before she took that post, Wiles was herself a registered federal lobbyist. A Public Citizen review of Senate lobbying disclosures found she was registered starting in November 2017 at Ballard Partners, later at Mercury Public Affairs, and until at least April 2024. The New York Times reported that she was registered as a lobbyist until early 2024, began working at Mercury in 2022, and, according to people familiar with the timing, did not sever ties with Mercury until after she was named chief of staff on Nov. 7, 2024. Senate lobbying filings list her on Mercury’s first-quarter 2024 report for SI Group Client Services, a Swisher tobacco account, on “FDA regulations.”
Ballard Partners, Morgen’s firm, is also where Wiles had been a managing partner, and it booked record lobbying revenue during her tenure. CBS News, analyzing Senate lobbying disclosures, found that the firm reported more than $88 million in lobbying revenue in 2025, a record for any firm since the Lobbying Disclosure Act took effect in 1996, even after adjusting for inflation. Through the first three quarters of 2026, while she was still chief of staff, the firm had already surpassed that total, reporting more than $98 million, CBS News found. The Washington Sun, citing an OpenSecrets analysis of Ballard’s filings, reported that the White House was the second-most-cited target of the firm’s lobbying in the first nine months of 2026, after the House.
The official ethics file shows a defined list of stock sales under OGE certificates, written recusals from his wife’s employment and from xAI, and, this week, a prior-approval rule for lobbyist meetings on the complex. According to The Atlantic, further steps involving his wife’s companies followed his promotion. The last certified disclosure still listed other holdings, including Spotify, xAI, Rushmore Ventures and Hot Water Holdings, with the employment and xAI items handled by recusal.
