WASHINGTON — A federal magistrate judge dismissed a criminal case against two former FBI agents accused of lying to Congress about the Hunter Biden investigation, ruling prosecutors failed to establish probable cause that the defendants knowingly made false statements.
Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui granted the motion to dismiss Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides on Monday, criticizing the prosecution's timing and approach. The judge suggested prosecutors purposefully brought the charges just 10 days before the midterm elections, saying he would "not bury my head in the sand and pretend I cannot read a calendar."
The two former officials had testified about the FBI's role in investigating the contents of a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden. Faruqui indicated some of their statements were not actually false and others could be attributed to "honest mistakes of memory."
Federal prosecutors in Washington DC charged Floris and Benavides last month with making false statements to members of the House Judiciary Committee in 2023. The agents served on an FBI taskforce that examined potential foreign influence in American politics, formed after the 2016 presidential election when concerns arose about Russian interference.
The FBI taskforce had raised concerns before the 2020 presidential election that Russia could have engaged in another disinformation operation to assist Donald Trump’s campaign by bolstering claims about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Last week, an FBI agent testified that the probe into Floris and Benavides began with the president's primetime address in July on election security, during which he announced the FBI would investigate whether U.S. intelligence agencies had suppressed information about Chinese meddling in the 2020 election. The FBI director, Kash Patel, subsequently tasked the Kansas City field office with scrutinizing Floris after she cast doubt on an FBI intelligence report claiming China sought to interfere in the 2020 election to boost Joe Biden over Trump.
While the justice department’s complaint against Floris and Benavides has been dismissed, prosecutors could try to charge them again by asking a grand jury to review evidence and approve charges. The dismissal adds another chapter to the ongoing legal and political scrutiny surrounding the Biden family and the FBI's investigative practices.
