A federal magistrate judge on Monday, Nov. 2, dismissed a criminal complaint accusing two former FBI officials of misleading Congress about the Hunter Biden investigation. Judge Zia Faruqui ruled that the government had not established probable cause that Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides lied to lawmakers about their knowledge of the investigation into Biden’s laptop.
The allegations concerned testimony the former officials gave to the House Judiciary Committee in 2023. Prosecutors accused them of misrepresenting their work on the Foreign Influence Task Force and their involvement in FBI investigations of Biden. Information recovered from the abandoned laptop later contributed to successful criminal charges against the son of former President Joe Biden.
Prosecutors pursued the case through a criminal complaint rather than seeking an indictment from a federal grand jury in Washington. Grand jurors there have shown skepticism toward politically charged cases involving perceived opponents of President Donald Trump, most recently declining to indict Cassidy Hutchinson. The Justice Department could still seek an indictment if it persuaded grand jurors that probable cause existed.
At a preliminary hearing last week, an FBI agent testified that he worried the investigation, directed by FBI Director Kash Patel, would be perceived as political. The agent also said prosecutor Carlton Davis had acknowledged problems with the complaint during a telephone conversation last week. Davis, a senior aide to District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and a former Republican congressional staffer, also participated in an unsuccessful effort to indict six sitting members of Congress over a social media video Trump disliked.
Faruqui had earlier criticized prosecutors for trying to add charges by placing a new, unsigned complaint on the court docket without a judge’s permission. Both Floris and Benavides had drawn criticism from close Trump allies. They worked on security matters surrounding the 2020 presidential election, which Trump has falsely asserted was stolen.
The Justice Department disputed Monday’s ruling, arguing that it appeared to shield senior government officials from accountability for materially false statements to Congress. The department said it was considering its options but would not discuss an ongoing criminal investigation further. It said facts, evidence and law would guide its actions.
Lawyers for Floris described the prosecution as a politically motivated effort to gain an advantage before the midterm elections. They said she should never have faced the public accusations and expressed hope that courts would protect people unlawfully targeted by the Trump administration.
Benavides’ attorneys welcomed the dismissal and characterized the allegations as “political theater.” They said Faruqui had weighed inadequate evidence against the legal standard and found that prosecutors failed to establish probable cause. They also urged the government against pursuing the case before a grand jury, where they said the defense would be unable to present its account.
