Two former senior FBI officials have been indicted and surrendered to authorities on Friday in connection with Hunter Biden's infamous laptop, according to a U.S. Attorney's Office press release.
46-year-old Nikki Cole Floris of Alexandria, Virginia, and 56-year-old Bradley Benavides of Aiken, South Carolina, are alleged to have lied in congressional testimony in 2023.
'No one is above the law, and we will hold accountable all who obstruct the truth.'
The now-defunct Foreign Influence Task Force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which Floris and Benavides had been a part of, led the FBI's mission to combat foreign influence on the 2020 election.
Both Floris and Benavides testified before Congress that the FITF was not involved in the investigation into Hunter Biden's laptop, the criminal complaint claims.
FBI Director Kash Patel said on social media, "Documentary evidence, contemporaneous communications, and witness accounts contradict their testimony."
Benavides testified that he had learned about the Biden case from Wikipedia, but records allegedly showed that he had been regularly talking about the case with FBI officials up to the 2020 election.
Floris had also allegedly spoken with FBI officials in the FITF and others about Hunter routinely for more than a year.
Patel claimed that Floris had also texted that she was "basically running a shadow government" across the FBI. A screenshot of the text was posted to social media by House Republicans.
"Lying to Congress by anyone strikes at the heart of our democratic system, but when senior FBI agents lie to Congress believing they are above the law, it’s time to bring the hammer of justice down on them," said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
“When senior officials entrusted with safeguarding our nation’s security choose deception over duty, they undermine the very institutions they swore to uphold," she added. "Today’s action makes clear that no one is above the law, and we will hold accountable all who obstruct the truth."
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Both Floris and Benavides appeared in a federal court in Washington, D.C., on Friday.
Floris' attorney called her a "patriot" in court and implied that the government was bringing up the charges just ahead of the election in order to influence public opinion.
Benavides was a section chief with the FITF from 2019 through the 2020 election, and Floris was a deputy assistant director and "functional head" of the FITF from 2019 until 2022, the complaint said.
"Lying to Congress by senior FBI officials strikes at the heart of our system. No one is above the law," said Patel on social media.
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