Miller emailed then-Breitbart News editor Katie McHugh a post from conservative pundit Mickey Kaus criticizing Marco Rubio’s GOP presidential run on Feb. 6, 2016, a little less than two weeks after joining Donald Trump’s campaign, saying someone needed to aggregate the piece for the site.

Aggregation in journalism happens when writers turn other outlets’ stories, opinion pieces or social media posts into new stories for their publications. Hours later, Breitbart published an article headlined “Mickey Kaus: Marco Rubio Hides Pro-Donor Amnesty Behind Anti-ISIS Bluster.”

Miller viewed the highly trafficked Breitbart as a way to promote his nativist, anti-immigration policies and to attack political enemies before millions of readers. And, while politicians and their staff commonly seek to influence news coverage, the dynamic on display in Miller’s emails to Breitbart suggests the conservative outlet was “not playing by the same rules that legitimate news organizations play by,” said Kyle Pope, editor-in-chief of the Columbia Journalism Review.



White House senior adviser Stephen Miller (center) is seen during a June congressional picnic on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“This is not remotely how a professional news organization functions,” Pope told Hatewatch, regarding Miller’s often-direct editorial instructions. “What is scary here is Trump, and his team, and also Trump supporters – hold up this kind of cheerleading news organization as an example of how journalism should be done, and it’s clearly not.”

The emails examined by Hatewatch demonstrate a pattern of influence by Miller. On April 10, 2016, he sent an email with the subject line “aggregate?” to Breitbart with a tweet by conservative commentator Matt Drudge. In his tweet, Drudge questioned the integrity of Colorado’s Republican caucus system in which Ted Cruz won a majority of delegates and which Trump had criticized as being “rigged.” Breitbart soon turned Drudge’s tweet into the story Miller apparently envisioned, “Matt Drudge: ‘Hello Colorado Republicans, even Iraqis get a vote.’”

Breitbart editors introduced Miller to McHugh in early 2015 to help shape her journalistic output, she told Hatewatch. At the time, Miller was an aide to then-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama. McHugh leaked to Hatewatch more than 900 of her previously private email conversations with the current White House senior adviser. In them, Miller appears to behave like an uncredited editor – periodically suggesting where stories should be placed on Breitbart’s homepage.

Miller suggested such a placement on the Hillary Clinton-focused story, “Donald Trump Slams ‘Heartless Hillary’ Clinton’s Soft-On-Crime Plans” in May 2016:

Miller, May 21, 2016, 12:11 a.m. ET: “Make sure this is put in lede.”

McHugh, May 21, 2016, 12:12 a.m. ET: “It’s top right.”

McHugh told Hatewatch that by “the lede,” Miller meant the story on Breitbart’s website most prominently showcased to readers. McHugh told Hatewatch that Breitbart management knowingly allowed her to defer to Miller.

“Both as an aide to Sen. Sessions and an adviser to Trump, Stephen Miller frequently dictated the editorial direction of Breitbart News to me,” McHugh said. “No one at Breitbart ever raised a question about whether this was ethical.”

McHugh, who was fired from Breitbart in 2017, told Hatewatch she took her position there 10 months after graduating from college. At 23, McHugh said, she did not immediately comprehend the degree to which the website’s interactions with Miller might prove unusual by traditional journalistic standards.

McHugh told Hatewatch she did not remember being privy to an email discussion on Oct. 3, 2015, in which Breitbart agreed to publish a press release authored by Miller under the generic byline Breitbart News. Miller conversed with Breitbart Washington political editor Matthew Boyle in the email about how to apply a byline to the post. Then-Breitbart chief Steve Bannon, Sessions aide Garrett Murch, McHugh and three other Breitbart employees were copied on the email.

Boyle, Oct. 3, 2015, 8:40 p.m. ET: “Also how should we run this? Under Senator Sessions’ byline? Or under ‘Breitbart News’ byline?”

Miller, Oct. 3, 2015, 8:42 p.m. ET: “I think Breitbart News. Then it can be introduced as something shared exclusively with Breitbart by the Senate’s Subcomittee [sic] on Immigration and the National Interest, with the graphic and explanatory text underneath.”

Boyle, Oct. 3, 2015, 8:43 p.m. ET: “Great. Guys I will prepare this [post] in the morning for launch tomorrow on the [Breitbart radio] show.”

Miller, Oct. 3, 2015, 8:47 p.m. ET: “Fantastic. I’ll be standing by to assist however I can. I think this is one of the best demonstrations we’ve come up with so far to demonstrate the true scope of immigration.”

The email conversation resulted in the Oct. 4, 2015, Breitbart post titled “Exclusive – Senate Immigration Subcommittee Releases Chart Proving Immigration Will Outpace American Population Growth 7 To 1 Through 2065.”

Miller frequently suggested story ideas to Breitbart directly from Sessions’ office. In another example, Miller sent a July 6, 2015, email from his government address to McHugh and Boyle with the subject line, “illegal immigrant child sex offenders.” He attached a 19-page document labeled “Child Sex Offenders,” which he said was a list of undocumented people who were accused of child molestation and other abuses.

Miller, July 6, 2015, 6:34 p.m. ET: “Articles compiled by our staff. Didn’t get from me.”

McHugh did not reply to Miller’s email about child sex offenders and told Hatewatch she did not remember whether or not she used the list.

Pope noted that Breitbart has lost readers since Trump took office, which the Columbia Journalism Review reported in August using data from the analytics company Comscore. Breitbart reached more than 12 million unique visitors per month at the time Trump declared his candidacy and had 18 million-plus unique visitors when he won the Republican nomination in July 2016, the Comscore data showed. By May 2019, Breitbart’s monthly unique visitors had dropped to under 5 million per month, Comscore found.

Breitbart readers in 2015 and 2016 took in something that was more akin to propaganda than journalism, said Tom Bivins, an ethics professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Miller was manipulating Breitbart, he said.

The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment regarding Hatewatch’s investigation. Bannon also did not respond to two requests for comment on this report. Bannon assumed the role of executive chair at Breitbart News in 2012 following the death of conservative publisher and founder Andrew Breitbart. Bannon was in that job when these emails were sent that Hatewatch acquired. Larry Solov became president and CEO of the news website after Breitbart’s death.

Elizabeth Moore, a spokeswoman for Breitbart News, responded to Hatewatch’s request for comment about Miller’s relationship with editors at the website with the following statement: