Patel announced the arrests after promising to prosecute agents and analysts
Set up after Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential race, the FBI task force on foreign influence in U.S. elections included Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides. Justice Department officials under President Trump disbanded the group in early 2025, accused it of partisanship and launched an investigation into its work and allegations of bias at the bureau more broadly.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrests of Floris, 46, and Benavides, 56, who made their first court appearances Friday morning. The former FBI employees specialized in foreign election interference. Before leading the agency, Patel was one of its harshest critics and had promised prosecutions of agents and analysts if he ever got the job.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that a sweeping investigation based in South Florida—intended, according to officials, to unravel a grand conspiracy against Trump by officials who investigated him over the last decade—was faltering, beset by inexperience and infighting. In recent weeks, officials privately acknowledged that the idea of tying disparate threads into one big conspiracy was not practical and had begun pursuing what they say are narrower but related criminal cases. The Floris-Benavides prosecution is among those cases.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Floris and Benavides lied in 2023 during a Republican-led congressional inquiry into whether federal law enforcement had been “weaponized” against their party. Each defendant was charged with one count of making false statements. Prosecutors said the two played down their roles in investigating Hunter Biden and his laptop despite communications, witness accounts and other evidence that showed otherwise.
Lawyers for Floris said the charges were a transparent attempt to “push a false narrative for a shot at political points.” A lawyer for Benavides did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
During a brief court proceeding Friday, Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui scheduled a preliminary hearing for Tuesday so Floris and Benavides could begin challenging the basis of the case. Faruqui said the alleged facts of the case appeared “quite old” and that Floris and Benavides had the right to confront them “as soon as humanly possible.”
The Wall Street Journal said the Hunter Biden and laptop investigations were at the center of a political firestorm. Republicans have accused the Biden-era Justice Department of giving the family of former President Joe Biden preferential treatment while aggressively investigating President Trump and his allies.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that the charges came less than two weeks before midterm Election Day, when Justice Department officials were under intense pressure to prosecute Trump’s perceived political adversaries and favored targets.