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DOJ Charges Nikki Floris And Bradley Benavides With Lying To Congress On Hunter Biden Laptop
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Floris and Benavides charged with false statements to Congress regarding FBI's Hunter Biden laptop investigation. Floris was Deputy Assistant Director for Counterterrorism; Benavides was Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence.
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NBC News“It’s no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election.”
The New York Times“The charges intensified the administration’s efforts to go after the law enforcement and intelligence personnel who cast doubt”
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Charges Over Laptop Inquiry
The Justice Department charged two former FBI intelligence officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, with making false statements to Congress about their roles in investigating Hunter Biden’s laptop in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.
Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides surrendered Friday and made their first appearance in federal court in Washington, where their lawyers pressed for a speedy hearing to contest the allegations.
The Department of Justice said Floris and Benavides lied to Congress in 2023 about the involvement of a specialized foreign-influence task force in investigations into Biden as well as their knowledge of the laptop.
FBI Director Kash Patel said, "Lying to Congress by senior FBI officials strikes at the heart of our system. No one is above the law," as the case revisited a dispute that roiled the final weeks of the 2020 race.
The charges were filed 10 days before the Nov. 3 elections, and the case was described as a rare Department of Justice criminal case against a former employee.
Court, Timing, and Dispute
Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides appeared in federal court in Washington, where their lawyers pressed for a speedy hearing to contest allegations they lied to lawmakers by saying they did not participate in FBI investigations of Biden.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui remarked that it is "rare that we have charges this old coming in this nature," and set a preliminary hearing for next Tuesday.
Faruqui also said the case was "This is the Sword of Damocles" hanging over the defendants’ heads, after prosecutors pushed for more time.
Defense attorneys for Floris called her “a patriot,” and her lawyers said, "Yet today, the DOJ has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts," in a statement.
The case was filed less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 elections via criminal complaint, meaning prosecutors had not yet presented the allegations to a grand jury for an indictment.
Foreign Influence Task Force
The charges centered on the Foreign Intelligence Task Force, which the Justice Department said was involved in investigations into Hunter Biden and which was later disbanded in February 2025 by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The criminal complaint alleged Floris and Benavides lied to Congress in 2023 about the role of the task force in investigations into Hunter Biden’s laptop, according to court documents made public on Friday.
The case also revisited the laptop’s discovery and publicity, with the New York Post saying it had obtained a hard drive from Trump ally Rudy Giuliani of a computer dropped off by Hunter Biden at a Wilmington, Delaware, repair shop.
Reuters said the case marked "the latest attempt by the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute US officials" over incidents that angered President Donald Trump and his allies.
The New York Times described the charges as an escalation of the Trump administration’s efforts to go after law enforcement and intelligence personnel who cast doubt on unsubstantiated claims about Joseph R. Biden Jr. engaging in corrupt dealings in Ukraine.