Judge dismisses charges against former FBI officials over Hunter Biden testimony

A federal judge on Monday, November 2, dismissed criminal charges against two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about their involvement in the investigation into Hunter Biden. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui ruled that prosecutors had failed to establish probable cause that Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides knowingly gave false statements.

Faruqui sharply criticized the prosecution’s handling of the case, saying it had moved too quickly and made serious errors. He found that some statements cited by prosecutors were not false, while others could reflect ordinary failures of recollection rather than deliberate deception.

The judge also questioned the timing of the charges, which were brought just 10 days before the midterm elections. He suggested prosecutors had deliberately chosen a politically sensitive moment. “What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization,” Faruqui said at the hearing.

Federal prosecutors in Washington DC filed the charges in October over testimony Floris and Benavides gave to the House judiciary committee in 2023. Their testimony concerned the FBI’s work examining material on a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, the son of former president Joe Biden.

Both officials had worked on an FBI taskforce examining possible foreign influence in American politics. The group was established after the 2016 presidential election amid concerns among officials about Russian attempts to interfere. Before the 2020 election, the taskforce raised the possibility that Russia was conducting another disinformation operation, this time to help Donald Trump’s campaign by amplifying claims involving Hunter Biden’s laptop.

An FBI agent testified last week that the investigation of Floris and Benavides originated with Trump’s primetime speech on election security in July. During that address, the president announced that the FBI would examine whether US intelligence agencies had suppressed information concerning Chinese interference in the 2020 election.

The following day, FBI director Kash Patel directed the bureau’s Kansas City field office to scrutinize Floris. She had questioned an FBI intelligence report asserting that China sought to influence the 2020 election in Joe Biden’s favor against Trump.

Trump has publicly attacked people he believes hindered his attempts to overturn the 2020 election result. Since his return to the presidency in January 2025, the justice department has pursued indictments and complaints against people he regards as enemies, although some prominent efforts have been unsuccessful.

Monday’s dismissal does not prevent prosecutors from pursuing another case against Floris and Benavides. They could present evidence to a grand jury and seek its approval for new charges.