Judge Tosses Case Against Ex-FBI Officials in Hunter Biden Laptop Probe, Calls It ‘Weaponization’
A federal judge in Washington on Monday dismissed the criminal complaint against two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about the bureau’s handling of the Hunter Biden laptop.
“What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said from the bench as he threw out the case against Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, the Associated Press reported.
Faruqui noted the investigation was opened the day after a primetime election-security speech by President Donald Trump last July, and that FBI Director Kash Patel mandated it and tracked it closely.
He also said the Justice Department could have brought the case, which stems from statements made in 2023, at any time but chose to file it two weeks before Tuesday’s midterm elections.
“I will not bury my head in the sand and pretend that I cannot read a calendar,” Faruqui said.
The judge found no probable cause to support the charges after a roughly hourlong hearing, The Hill reported. “There is no denying this investigation was rushed,” he said.
What the Case Alleged
Prosecutors accused Floris and Benavides, who worked on the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, of misleading the House Judiciary Committee in 2023 about what they knew of the bureau’s work on the laptop.
Investigators claimed the pair “knew about, and were actively involved in” those investigations, citing documents and witness accounts that allegedly showed they regularly discussed the matter inside the task force and with other FBI officials.
The Justice Department says Hunter Biden dropped the laptop off at a Delaware repair shop in 2019.
The New York Post’s stories on its contents weeks before the 2020 election set off a long fight over whether the FBI tried to bury damaging information.
The case also pointed to a 2020 “defensive briefing” the two gave lawmakers. Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin have said that briefing was used to undermine their investigation and tie it to Russian disinformation.
Floris’ attorneys argued the accusations were false and based on “the say-so of politicians, not on the facts,” Axios reported.
Faruqui had questioned from the start why prosecutors brought the case by criminal complaint, a route usually used when investigators need to take someone into custody quickly, instead of seeking a grand jury indictment.
At a hearing last week, he criticized prosecutors for filing an amended complaint with an added charge overnight without first clearing it with the court.
An FBI agent who worked the case testified he worried it would be seen as “political.”
The judge described the prosecution as a “rush job” directed by Trump and Patel, Fox News reported.
The ruling may not be the final word. The Justice Department could still seek a grand jury indictment against the two former officials, though it has struggled to win indictments from Washington grand juries in politically charged cases.
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