Judge Tosses Case Against Two Ex-FBI Officials in Biden Probe

A federal magistrate judge in Washington on Monday dismissed a criminal complaint against two former FBI officials who were accused of lying to Congress about the bureau’s investigations involving Hunter Biden, NBC News and Fox News reported.

Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui ruled from the bench that prosecutors had not shown probable cause that the two defendants, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, made false statements, according to NBC News. The Justice Department had charged the pair by criminal complaint, which requires a judge’s finding of probable cause, rather than by asking a grand jury for an indictment. The complaint said they misdescribed their roles on the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and in the Hunter Biden inquiries when they testified to the House Judiciary Committee in 2023.

Fox News quoted the judge as calling the prosecution “weaponization” and a “rush job,” which he said Trump and Patel, the FBI director, had driven. Faruqui had earlier criticized prosecutors for filing a second, unsigned complaint on the court docket without his permission, NBC News reported.

The ruling followed a preliminary hearing last week at which an FBI agent testified that he worried the investigation, which he said Patel had directed, would be seen as political. According to NBC News, the agent also said a prosecutor on the case had acknowledged in a phone call that the complaint was flawed. That prosecutor, Carlton Davis, is a top aide to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.

The Justice Department said in a statement that it disagrees with the ruling and that the decision seems to imply senior officials cannot be held to account for knowingly false statements to Congress. The department said it is weighing all options and that politics does not guide its actions. The strongest version of the government’s argument is that officials who testify to Congress are bound by the same truthfulness laws as anyone else.

A dismissal at this stage does not necessarily end the matter. NBC News noted that the department could still seek an indictment from a grand jury, although it called that outcome unlikely given the judge’s finding that the complaint failed the probable-cause standard. The same news outlet pointed to grand jurors in Washington having recently refused to indict Cassidy Hutchinson, another politically charged case brought by the department.

The decision lands one day before Election Day, as the Justice Department is also defending its handling of election-related disputes in several courts.

Data from the laptop at the center of the congressional inquiry later contributed to criminal charges against Hunter Biden, NBC News noted.