A federal judge on Monday dismissed a criminal complaint against two former FBI officials accused of making false statements to Congress about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Prosecutors alleged that former agents Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides lied while testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in 2023 about an FBI election interference task force’s involvement in the probe into Hunter Biden.
From Fox News:
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.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui dismissed the criminal complaint against former FBI officials Nikki Cole Floris and Bradley Benavides from the bench, sharply criticizing the government's handling of the prosecution.
"What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization," Faruqui said, describing the case as a "rush job" directed by President Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel.
The case stemmed from allegations that the officials lied to Congress about their knowledge of Hunter Biden’s laptop and the bureau’s handling of investigations involving him ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
The ruling capped a series of hearings in which Faruqui questioned the government's decision to pursue the case through a criminal complaint rather than a grand jury indictment and blasted prosecutors for attempting to add another charge without first securing judicial approval.
Republicans have long accused the FBI of improperly handling information about Hunter Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential election, alleging that political bias influenced the bureau's decisions.
Prosecutors alleged that Floris and Benavides made false statements during congressional interviews in 2023 about what they knew and did that were contradicted by internal FBI communications and witness accounts.
🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨 A federal judge just dismissed charges against two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about Hunter Biden’s laptop. U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui called the investigation into former officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, rushed, overly political, and full of serious mistakes, describing it as clear “weaponization.” He says the case was ordered and closely watched by FBI Director Kash Patel and filed just before the midterms, even though the alleged lies happened years earlier.
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) November 2, 2026
The Justice Department might still have an opportunity to pursue grand jury indictments against the two former officials.
Prosecutors claim the two former officials downplayed what they knew about the FBI’s Hunter Biden investigations when they sat for interviews with the committee. Benavides told lawmakers he had learned of the details of the case on Wikipedia.
The judge weighed each of the 10 alleged lies individually. The DOJ only needed one lie from each official to survive the judge’s scrutiny for the case to move forward.
The DOJ announced the arrests last month.
Prosecutors allege the pair sought to minimize or conceal the task force’s engagement with the Hunter Biden investigations and impede congressional scrutiny, according to the Washington Examiner.
Both approved an internal project known as Round River, which collected derogatory informant reporting about Hunter Biden and examined whether it could be labeled Russian disinformation. Indeed, after Biden’s laptop was revealed, folks on the left desperately sought to trick the public into believing it was a Kremlin-backed disinformation effort.
The case is one of several in which the Bureau tried to suppress information during the 2020 presidential election that could have been harmful to former President Joe Biden’s campaign.
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