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Judge Rejects New Charges Against FBI Officials in Hunter Biden Laptop Case
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In Short: A federal judge dismissed a criminal complaint against two former FBI officials accused of misleading Congress about their knowledge of the Hunter Biden laptop investigation.
Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui rejected an amended criminal complaint filed by the Justice Department against Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, according to Abcnews and the Los Angeles Times. The complaint, which added a new obstruction charge, was deemed improperly submitted by Faruqui.
Abcnews reported that the judge criticized the Justice Department for filing an unsigned criminal complaint, describing it as inappropriate given the defendants' presumption of innocence. Faruqui noted that this case had several atypical aspects, including the decision to file charges via criminal complaint, which is more often used when the government needs to take a defendant into custody immediately.
The Los Angeles Times and Midmichigannow reported that the case accuses Floris and Benavides of falsely downplaying their knowledge about a laptop Hunter Biden abandoned at a computer repair shop in 2019. The Justice Department contends that the defendants' lack of knowledge allowed them to avoid further questioning about Hunter Biden and impeded the congressional investigation.
According to Abcnews, the judge said he had never seen a prosecutor file an unsigned criminal complaint, describing it as inappropriate. Faruqui also noted that the case pertained to Hunter Biden’s laptop and investigations around it.
Faruqui said prosecutors created “their own category of charging” with the new complaint they tried to bring against Floris and Benavides. He said the case was about “Hunter Biden’s laptop, investigations around that.”
Faruqui dismissed the case after defense attorneys and the judge noted the unusual move to charge the case through a criminal complaint, which is more often used by prosecutors when they have an urgent need to take people into custody.
Faruqui said the case was political, with Faruqui noting that the basis for the investigation was Trump administration suspicions that the FBI in 2020 had suppressed intelligence that could have been harmful to the Bidens.
According to Abcnews, the judge said he had concerns that the case would be political, and he ticked off several atypical aspects of the case, including the decision to file charges via criminal complaint.
Faruqui said the case pertained to Hunter Biden’s laptop and investigations around it, and that the Justice Department had failed to show probable cause that Floris and Benavides had lied to lawmakers.
Faruqui said the case was about some political football and not the law or the facts. He said he would be ordering that the new version of the charging documents be “struck from the record,” though the Justice Department could try to add new charges the proper way.
The defense attorneys for Floris and Benavides have called the case baseless and politically motivated, according to Abcnews and Wsls. They said Floris served her nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years, and accused the Justice Department of building its case on hearsay.
The judge said it was not the court’s practice to file unsigned complaints on the docket. Faruqui said he had concerns that the case would be political.
What this adds
The sources have not established the exact timeline of the investigation or the specific details of the laptop's discovery and handling by the FBI.
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.
- Magistrate Zia Faruqui rejected an amended criminal complaint filed overnight by the Justice Department that added a new obstruction charge against the two former officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, after concluding that it was improperly submitted.
- “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."
- A federal judge has scolded the Justice Department for its unorthodox handling of a criminal case against two former FBI officials accused of making false statements to Congress about their participation in and knowledge of investigations involving Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden.
- A federal judge tossed criminal charges against two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about the Hunter Biden investigation Monday, delivering a blistering rebuke of the prosecution and accusing the Trump administration's Justice Department of weaponizing the justice system.
- A federal judge dismissed a criminal complaint against two former FBI officials whom the government accused of misleading Congress about their knowledge of the Hunter Biden laptop investigation.
What's still developing
- The ruling came during a dramatic, hourslong hearing in which an agent who worked the case conceded under defense lawyer questioning that the investigation was launched after a July speech from President Donald Trump on election interference and that the inquiry was mandated by FBI Director Kash Patel.
- “They wanted us to investigate aggressively,” Witt said.
- In reality, according to the criminal complaint, the two participated in numerous discussions about the laptop in their capacity as leaders of the since-disbanded FBI Foreign Influence Task Force that was set up to monitor foreign influence.
- 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.
- A federal judge refused on Tuesday to approve a new criminal complaint against two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about the Hunter Biden investigations, sharply criticizing prosecutors for filing it without first securing judicial approval.
- "What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization," U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said in a scathing ruling from the bench that dismissed the case against former officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides.
- U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui issued the decision on Monday after previously expressing skepticism of the case in an earlier hearing, the Associated Press reported.