Federal Judge Dismisses Charges Against Two Ex-FBI Officials Over Hunter Biden Laptop

A federal judge in Washington dismissed a criminal complaint against two former FBI officials on Monday. The court ruled that the investigation into the officials was rushed, overtly political, and marked by critical mistakes. U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui issued the ruling from the bench.

The case targeted Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides. Prosecutors alleged that the pair made false statements to Congress in 2023. The officials were accused of lying about their knowledge of efforts to investigate a laptop linked to Hunter Biden. The laptop was dropped off at a computer repair shop in Delaware in 2019.

Faruqui called the legal action an example of weaponization. He stated that what transpired could not be described in any other way. The judge noted that the investigation opened one day after President Donald Trump delivered a primetime speech. In that speech, Trump rehashed grievances regarding his loss in the 2020 presidential election.

The judge pointed out that FBI Director Kash Patel mandated the investigation and closely tracked its progress. Faruqui observed that the Justice Department could have brought the case at any time. Instead, the department opted to file the complaint two weeks before Tuesday's midterm voting. He told the court, I will not bury my head in the sand and pretend that I cannot read a calendar.

The decision followed a preliminary hearing last week where the judge scolded prosecutors for unorthodox maneuvers. An FBI agent who worked on the case testified that he was concerned the investigation would be seen as political. The judge also criticized the department for filing an amended complaint overnight. The new charge went directly to the docket without first being cleared by the court.

Faruqui raised immediate questions about why the Justice Department used a criminal complaint rather than a grand jury indictment. Criminal complaints are typically used when investigators need to take a defendant into custody quickly. Indictments require approval from a grand jury. The judge noted that persuading grand juries in the capital to return indictments in politically charged cases is often difficult.

The Justice Department may still pursue a grand jury indictment against Floris and Benavides. Their lawyers had pressed for dismissal of the charges. The original complaint accused the officials of misleading lawmakers in 2020 as well. Floris and Benavides gave a defensive briefing to Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. The senators said the briefing was used to undermine their investigation into the Biden administration and link it to Russian disinformation.

The case sought to echo longstanding grievances by Trump and his Republican allies. They argued that the FBI attempted to suppress information during the 2020 presidential campaign. That information was seen as potentially harmful to the Biden family. Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate, defeated incumbent Donald Trump in the 2020 election.