Two former senior FBI officials were charged Friday with allegedly making false statements to Congress about their roles in the investigation of Hunter Biden’s laptop during the final weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
Nikki Floris, 46, and Bradley Benavides, 56, appeared in federal court for the first time Friday in Washington, DC, before US Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui.
Each faces one count of allegedly lying to Congress about their work with the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and their involvement in the bureau’s Hunter Biden investigation, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said.
The allegations were filed in a criminal complaint, meaning federal prosecutors have not yet obtained a grand jury indictment against either former official.
Floris, a former intelligence analyst, led the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Benavides previously served as deputy assistant director of the bureau’s Counterintelligence Division.
Pirro’s decision to announce charges against two former senior FBI officials just 10 days before the midterm elections is highly unusual. During Friday’s hearing, attorneys for Floris and Benavides urged the magistrate judge to schedule a preliminary hearing as soon as “humanly possible” to determine whether the cases should proceed.
Hunter Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, leave the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Court in Wilmington, Delaware, following opening statements in his felony gun trial
US Attorney Jeanine Pirro speaks at a press conference. Her office announced charges against two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress in 2023, prompting questions about the timing and method of the prosecution
Then-FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Counterterrorism Nikki Floris testifies before Congress in 2019 alongside Adam Hickey, a former national security official at the Department of Justice
According to the criminal complaint, Floris and Benavides made false statements to the House Judiciary Committee about their positions on the task force and their involvement in the Hunter Biden investigation during separate testimony in July and September 2023.
The cases are the latest example of the Justice Department moving around longstanding internal guidance that discourages public or overt investigative actions involving public officials during the 90 days before an election.
Attorneys for the former FBI officials questioned why prosecutors had waited so long to pursue the alleged false-statements charges. They noted that warrants were served more than three years after their clients testified before Congress.
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Faruqui also questioned the timing, calling the way the charges were brought “strange.” He rejected prosecutors’ request to postpone the preliminary hearing for more than two weeks.
The parties were ordered to return to court Tuesday morning to discuss the next steps.
Hunter Biden’s laptop, which was left at a Delaware repair shop and later obtained by former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, became a major political flashpoint ahead of the 2020 election after the New York Post reported on its contents.
Hunter Biden was subsequently convicted of felony gun charges and separate tax offenses. His father, former President Joe Biden, pardoned him shortly before leaving office.
Republicans have sharply criticized the FBI’s handling of the laptop and the now-disbanded Foreign Influence Task Force, which Floris and Benavides both helped lead. The FITF was responsible for investigating foreign influence threats, including suspected Russian disinformation, and became a frequent target of Republican scrutiny.
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded the FITF in one of her first official actions last year.
Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel praised the charges Friday. In separate statements, both described the former officials’ alleged conduct as “weaponization.”
“As we’ve said repeatedly: weaponization will never be tolerated at this FBI,” Patel said, adding that “anyone who abuses their position of public trust will be held accountable.”
Pirro, the US attorney in DC, went further – describing prosecutors’ actions as bringing the ‘hammer of justice down’ on the senior ex-FBI agents.
‘Lying to Congress by anyone strikes at the heart of our democratic system but when senior FBI agents lie to Congress believing they are above the law, it’s time to bring the hammer of justice down on them,’ Pirro said Friday.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
