Two former FBI officials were charged with making false statements to Congress regarding the investigation into former US president Joe Biden's son, Hunter, ahead of the 2024 presidential election, the Washington Post reported.
The US Justice Department (DOJ) announced the charges against Nikki Floris, a former analyst who led the intelligence division in the FBI’s Washington field office, and Bradley Benavides, a former deputy assistant director for counterintelligence, on Friday. The charges allege that both intentionally hid information while testifying to the House Judiciary Committee about FBI probes into Hunter Biden and his laptop in 2023.
Floris's attorneys claimed that the DOJ had "accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts," the Washington Post reported. Similarly, Ron Safer, attorney for Benavides, urged the court to hold a hearing to determine if prosecutors had enough evidence for the charges against "two lifetime public servants."
"Nikki Floris is a patriot,” her attorneys said in a statement. “She served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years. … It’s no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election.”
The pair face up to five years in prison if found guilty. They were released on Friday morning after a brief appearance before a federal magistrate judge.
Former FBI agents allegedly lied about involvement in the Biden investigation
Floris and Benavides undermined "the very institutions they swore to uphold," US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, whose office is prosecuting the case, accused in a statement.
“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."
According to an FBI affidavit, Floris repeatedly denied involvement in the Hunter Biden investigations during a hearing at the House Judiciary Committee in 2023.
“In reality, she was in frequent communication with the case team for over a year during which she both sent and received information about Hunter Biden,” the affidavit reads.
“Floris testified that she knew nothing about the Hunter Biden laptop. In reality, she coordinated the FBI’s response to news articles about the laptop in real time.”
Testifying a few months later, Benavides told the same committee that he knew little about the case, explaining that he had learned about the laptop from a Wikipedia entry while preparing his testimony. "In reality," the affidavit reads, "he was in constant communication about the laptop over a period of days."
A member of the committee said that those answers had “influenced the Committee’s investigation significantly, including by thwarting investigative follow-up interviews and subpoenas,” the Washington Post reported.
Relevance of Hunter Biden's laptop is a hotly debated partisan issue
Republicans and Democrats have debated the significance of Hunter Biden's laptop, with Republicans claiming it contains evidence of corruption within the Biden family, while Democrats say it was part of a Republican conspiracy.
The laptop was handed over to the FBI in 2019 after a computer shop owner said Hunter Biden had dropped it off at his shop and not returned to collect it.
The owner told The Washington Post that he decided to turn the laptop over to authorities after he viewed some of its contents.
Trump administration has used its power to bring charges against critical officials
US Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui raised concerns about the timing of the charges in court on Friday. He also asked if the alleged false statements had had a material impact on the investigation.
He granted the defense attorney's request for a hearing to weigh government evidence, which will take place on Tuesday - sooner than would typically be expected given the defendants had been sent home.
“It’s certainly rare,” Faruqui said. “But it is more rare that we have charges that are this old of this nature.”
He added that the information in the case "certainly appears quite old," as it was charged over three years after the former agents had testified to Congress. Faruqui said that both Floris and Benavides had "sparkling backgrounds" in law enforcement, the Washington Post reported, adding that they had an interest in clearing their names as quickly as possible.
"There is a Sword of Damocles hanging over their head … this will follow them for the rest of their lives,” Faruqui said.
Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, many FBI agents whom the US president's allies claimed were working against him have been pushed out of the agency. This includes some agents who claim they were only fired because they worked on investigations into US President Donald Trump, and some who say they were fired because they didn't show him sufficient loyalty.