Defense lawyers and judge note an unusual filing
A federal criminal complaint alleges that former FBI task-force leaders Bradley Benavides and Nikki Floris made false statements in 2023 congressional testimony about their roles in the Hunter Biden laptop inquiry. The complaint says Benavides learned through Wikipedia that the FBI possessed the laptop and accuses Floris of falsely claiming she knew nothing about Hunter Biden being discussed at task-force meetings. Benavides and Floris disputed the allegations in federal court in Washington on Friday, where their lawyers sought a speedy hearing; prosecutors have not yet presented the complaint to a grand jury.
The complaint alleges that Floris and Benavides, in their capacity as leaders of the Foreign Influence Task Force, were deeply engaged in investigations into Hunter Biden and that Hunter Biden was a recurring subject at task-force meetings. It says both downplayed their firsthand knowledge of the laptop or their involvement in those investigations when they testified before lawmakers conducting their own Biden investigation in 2023.
The case was filed through a criminal complaint less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 elections, a procedural posture that leaves the allegations without a grand-jury indictment. It is also the latest in a series of high-profile, politically charged Justice Department actions ahead of the midterms. The prosecution is a rare Justice Department criminal case against a former employee.
Complaints are more often used when prosecutors have an urgent need to take a defendant into custody, such as when the person presents a danger or risk of flight. Defense attorneys and Faruqui noted the unusual nature of the filing, while the Justice Department has repeatedly struggled in high-profile cases to persuade grand juries in the nation’s capital to return indictments.
Faruqui remarked that it is “rare that we have charges this old coming in this nature,” and over prosecutors’ objections as they pushed for more time, he set a preliminary hearing for next Tuesday, citing what he said was the “sword of Damocles” hanging over the defendants’ heads.
Floris’ attorneys called her “a patriot” and said she has “served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years.” “Yet today, the DOJ has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts,” they said. “It’s no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election.”
Attorneys for Benavides accused the government of bringing “baseless criminal charges against him in a transparently political complaint.” “This is another sad day for the Department of Justice,” his lawyers said. “But now we are in court, and the truth will come out: Brad Benavides is a true patriot who devoted his career to protecting this country and its people. These charges are a disgrace.”
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.” Before taking over the bureau, Patel had criticized it. The case comes amid a broader, backward-looking effort under Patel to scrutinize high-profile episodes from the bureau’s recent past that for years animated President Donald Trump’s conservative base.
As director, Patel has presided over widespread firings of agents who were involved in investigations of Trump or who are perceived as being against the Republican administration’s agenda. He has also focused attention on years-old investigations, including the Hunter Biden inquiry, that predated his tenure and were the subject of grievances and complaints by Trump allies.
The Foreign Influence Task Force was established in the first Trump administration to police influence campaigns staged by Russia and other nations that aimed at sowing discord, undermining democracy and spreading disinformation. It became a focus of congressional Republican criticism in part because of the Hunter Biden investigation and was disbanded in February 2025 by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The case revisits the upheaval surrounding the laptop’s disclosure in October 2020, when its existence became part of the presidential race between Donald Trump, the Republican incumbent, and Joe Biden, the Democratic challenger who went on to win. The New York Post publicized the laptop after saying it had obtained from Trump ally Rudy Giuliani a hard drive from a computer Hunter Biden had dropped off at a Wilmington, Delaware, repair shop about a year earlier. The computer’s materials included emails showing discussions of Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.
The criminal complaint builds on longstanding congressional Republican complaints about the FBI’s handling of the laptop. Those complaints included allegations that the bureau had not been forthcoming to the public that the materials, including emails about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, were authentic and were not the product of Russian disinformation.
The circumstances surrounding the laptop’s discovery raised concerns among Democrats and former intelligence officials about possible Russian involvement, particularly at a time when the Trump administration’s intelligence community had assessed that Moscow was attempting to interfere in Trump’s favor in the election and Giuliani had traveled abroad looking for dirt on the Bidens. Dozens of former U.S. intelligence officials signed a letter saying the laptop bore the “classic earmarks of an Russian information operation.”
But John Ratcliffe, then Trump’s director of national intelligence, attested to the computer’s authenticity in a Fox Business Network interview. The FBI, under then-Director Chris Wray, subsequently told Congress in a letter that it had nothing to add to Ratcliffe’s public statement.
Hunter Biden was charged with, and convicted of, gun and tax offenses during his father’s administration. Joe Biden pardoned him in the final weeks in office.
The Justice Department historically looks to avoid public and overt investigative acts in the direct lead-up to an election that involve candidates or that risk influencing a political outcome. But in the last two weeks, DOJ officials have made a series of moves in cases with political undertones, including a search of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington home in an immigration fraud investigation and a corruption indictment unsealed Thursday against Democratic Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas.
Omar and Lucas are both Trump critics. Omar, who is from Minnesota, called the search of her Washington home an “attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.” Lucas has said she “will not be intimidated or bullied by the federal government in its case against her” and “will not back down.” The case remains pending: prosecutors have not presented the allegations to a grand jury, and Faruqui’s preliminary hearing is set for next Tuesday.