Ex-FBI officials charged with lying to Congress about Hunter Biden probe

Two former FBI officials are facing charges for lying to Congress about their involvement in the agency’s investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, who worked in the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) in 2019 and 2020, were taken into custody Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on the social platform X .

Patel said in his post that both Floris and Benavides testified earlier that the FITF was not involved in the investigations into Biden, but documentary evidence, communications and witness accounts contradict their testimony.

“Lying to Congress by senior FBI officials strikes at the heart of our system,” Patel said. “No one is above the law.”

Biden’s laptop was seized by the FBI in 2019 and contained some of his personal information. The contents of the laptop, including emails showing discussions of Biden’s foreign business dealings, were published by the New York Post, which said it had obtained a hard drive of a computer dropped off by Biden at a Delaware repair shop, according to The Associated Press .

In a Friday release , the Department of Justice (DOJ) said the charges stem from an ongoing investigation into the FITF.

The department cited evidence that Floris discussed the FBI’s investigations routinely for more than a year within the FITF and with others in the FBI. Benavides also regularly discussed the laptop investigation with FBI officials.

“The weaponization of government goes against the interest of the American people, and public servants, including federal law enforcement officials, cannot lie to Congress and get away with it,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the DOJ release.

Both Floris and Benavides made their first appearance in federal court in Washington following their surrender Friday, where their lawyers asked for a speedy hearing at which they could contest the allegations, the AP reported .

Floris’s lawyers issued a statement disputing the allegations and calling her “a patriot.”

“Nikki Floris is a patriot. She served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years,” a statement obtained by The Hill said.

“Yet today, the DOJ has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts. It’s no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election,” the statement continued.