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Judge Rejects New Charges Against FBI Officials in Hunter Biden Laptop Case
· Confirmed
In Short: A US magistrate judge rejected new obstruction charges against two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about Hunter Biden's laptop.
A US magistrate judge on Tuesday rejected new obstruction charges against two former FBI officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, who were accused of making false statements to Congress about their involvement in the Hunter Biden laptop investigation.
The case, announced Friday, accuses Floris and Benavides of downplaying their knowledge about a laptop Hunter Biden abandoned at a computer repair shop in 2019.
During a dramatic, hours-long hearing, an agent who worked the case conceded that the investigation was launched after a July speech from President Donald Trump on election interference.
The agent, Bryan Witt, suggested he had been begrudgingly assigned to the investigation and had regarded it as a “huge distraction” from other casework.
Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui criticized prosecutors for filing the new criminal complaint without first securing judicial approval, describing it as “inappropriate” given defendants’ presumption of innocence.
Faruqui noted several atypical aspects of the case, including the decision to file charges via criminal complaint, which is more often used when the government has disrupted an active crime or needs to take a defendant into custody immediately.
The Justice Department contends that the defendants' lack of knowledge allowed them to avoid further questioning about Hunter Biden and impeded the congressional investigation.
Floris and Benavides’ lawyers have called the case baseless and politically motivated, with one lawyer stating, “It is not our court’s practice — and I think it is appropriately not our practice — that unsigned complaints are filed on the docket.”
A lawyer for Floris said she “served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years,” while accusing the Justice Department of building its case on hearsay.
The judge’s rejection of the new charges underscores the unusual nature of the case and the concerns raised about its political motivations.
The case pertains to “Hunter Biden’s laptop, investigations around that,” as Faruqui noted.
In reality, according to the criminal complaint, the two participated in numerous discussions about the laptop in their capacity as leaders of the FBI Foreign Influence Task Force that was set up to monitor foreign influence.
What this adds
The rejection of the new charges highlights the ongoing controversy surrounding the case and the perceived political motivations behind it.
What's confirmed
- The case, announced Friday, accuses Floris and Benavides of falsely playing down their knowledge about a laptop the Justice Department says Hunter Biden abandoned at a computer repair shop in 2019.
- “Everything is a little sideshow on top of a sideshow,” Faruqui said, saying prosecutors appeared to be throwing “gas” on defendants’ assertions that there is nothing typical about this case.
- “I had concerns that this would be political,” he said.
- A lawyer for Floris said she “served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years”, while accusing the Justice Department of building its case on hearsay.
- Two former senior FBI officials who the Justice Department charged with allegedly making false statements to Congress in the probe into Hunter Biden's laptop called the charges "a serious abuse of the criminal charging process."
- “It is not our court’s practice — and I think it is appropriately not our practice — that unsigned complaints are filed on the docket,” Faruqui said.
- “Nikki Floris is a patriot. She served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years. Yet today, the DOJ has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts. It’s no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election,” her attorneys said in a statement.
What's still developing
- “They wanted us to investigate aggressively,” Witt said.
- Floris, 46, and Benavides, 56, surrendered to authorities on October 23, 2026, and appeared in federal court in Washington, D.C.
- WASHINGTON — Two ex-FBI officials who helped “shape the public narrative” on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop were charged Friday for lying to Congress about their involvement discrediting stories about the troubled first son, according to federal authorities.
- Attorneys for Floris denied wrongdoing and claimed that their "patriot" client was being falsely accused "on the say-so of politicians." Yes!