Judge scolds DOJ over FBI officials charged with lying about Hunter Biden laptop
A federal judge rebuked prosecutors for mishandling charges against two ex-FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about the Hunter Biden laptop case.
Federal Judge Rebukes DOJ in Case Against Ex-FBI Officials Over Biden Laptop Testimony
A federal judge on Tuesday sharply criticized the Justice Department for its handling of a criminal case against two former FBI officials accused of making false statements to Congress, ABC News US reports. The case centers on what prosecutors say was the officials' deliberate concealment of their knowledge of a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden.
U.S. Magistrate Zia Faruqui rejected an amended criminal complaint filed overnight by the Justice Department that added a new obstruction charge against the two former officials — Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides. Faruqui ruled the filing was improperly submitted, noting that such charging documents require judicial sign-off confirming probable cause, but this complaint had been filed directly to the docket without any court approval.
"Everything is a little sideshow on top of a sideshow," Faruqui said, adding that prosecutors appeared to be throwing "gas" on defense arguments that the case was far from ordinary.
The judge said he had never before seen a prosecutor file an unsigned criminal complaint and described it as "inappropriate" given defendants' presumption of innocence. He also noted the unusual decision to pursue the case via criminal complaint — a mechanism more typically used when authorities need to take a suspect into immediate custody or have disrupted an active crime.
Investigation Opened After Trump Speech, Agent Testifies
The hourslong hearing produced striking testimony from Bryan Witt, an FBI agent who worked the case. Under questioning from defense lawyers, Witt acknowledged that the investigation was launched following a July primetime address by President Donald Trump on election interference and that it had been mandated by FBI Director Kash Patel.
Witt, who works out of Kansas City, Missouri, said he had been begrudgingly assigned to the probe and considered it a "huge distraction" from his other work.
"I had concerns that this would be political," he told the court.
Witt testified that Patel directed his office to investigate Floris and other officials believed to have been involved in recalling a disputed FBI intelligence report. That report alleged a Chinese effort to influence the 2020 election through fraudulent driver's licenses. Trump and some allies have cited the memo as evidence of Chinese interference on behalf of Joe Biden, but senior FBI officials ordered it recalled due to concerns about the validity of the underlying intelligence.
Witt said he understood that the timing of the investigation — opened in the wake of a Trump speech, at the direction of the FBI director — made it appear politically driven. He said FBI leadership, including Patel, maintained a keen interest in the probe.
"They wanted us to investigate aggressively," Witt said.
Defense: Prosecution Is "Political Football"
Defense attorneys seized on the testimony to support their claim that the case was motivated by politics rather than the law. Mary Dohrmann, a lawyer for Floris, addressed what she called the "elephant in the room," saying "evidence is mounting that this prosecution is about some political football — and not the law or the facts."
The case, announced the previous Friday, accuses Floris and Benavides of understating their knowledge of the laptop — which the Justice Department says Hunter Biden abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019 — when interviewed by congressional investigators in 2023. At the time, both were questioned in connection with a separate congressional inquiry into the Biden family.
Prosecutors allege the two claimed to have no independent knowledge of the FBI's possession of the laptop, when in fact they had participated in numerous internal discussions about it as leaders of the now-disbanded FBI Foreign Influence Task Force, which was set up to monitor foreign influence operations.
The Justice Department argues their professed ignorance allowed them to sidestep further questioning and obstructed the congressional investigation.
Ron Safer, a lawyer for Benavides, pushed back on that characterization during the hearing. He noted that his client had left the task force years before being questioned and challenged prosecutors to explain what evidence showed Benavides had knowingly lied.
"What evidence have you uncovered that in September of 2023, Mr. Benavides remembered the correct answers, in your view, to the questions asked about Hunter Biden but gave knowingly incorrect answers?" Safer asked agent Witt.
Broader Pattern of Unusual DOJ Moves
Faruqui's rebuke marked a setback for a Justice Department that has employed a series of unconventional maneuvers in high-profile cases in the run-up to next week's midterm elections. Newly unsealed documents in a separate matter revealed that prosecutors are seeking to again charge former FBI Director James Comey — an outspoken critic of Trump — in a way that Comey's lawyers say is legally invalid.
The laptop itself has had a turbulent history in American political discourse. It first surfaced publicly in the final weeks of the 2020 presidential race, after the New York Post reported its existence, and has remained a flashpoint in disputes over media coverage, law enforcement conduct, and election interference claims ever since.
Source: ABC News US