Federal judge dismisses case against ex-FBI officials accused of lying about Biden laptop probe

A federal judge on Monday dismissed charges against two former FBI officials who were accused of lying to Congress about their involvement in the federal investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Judge Zia Faruqui, a magistrate judge who sits on the federal bench in D.C., found no probable cause to support charges against Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, who were accused of making false statements during interviews with the House Judiciary Committee in 2023.

“There is no denying this investigation was rushed,” Faruqui said during a roughly hourlong hearing, later adding that it “cannot be described as anything other than weaponization” of the Justice Department.

Prosecutors alleged that Floris and Benavides, both of whom worked in the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), lied about their knowledge and involvement in the bureau’s investigations into Biden.

The controversy erupted just weeks before the 2020 presidential election when the New York Post published stories based on the contents of a laptop that a Delaware repair shop owner said Biden had left there and never picked up. The FBI seized the laptop in 2019, but a copy of the hard drive was given to Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Guiliani, who passed it to the news outlet.

The contents included emails related to Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, including one that hinted at an alleged meeting between then-Vice President Biden and an adviser to the Ukrainian gas company Burisma. The Biden campaign denied that a meeting ever occurred.

Federal investigators claim that Floris and Benavides “knew about, and were actively involved in” the FBI’s investigations, citing documents and witness accounts that purportedly showed the two regularly discussed it within the FITF and with other FBI officials.

Federal prosecutors could still try to seek an indictment from a grand jury.