A federal judge just let two former FBI officials walk after they were caught lying to Congress about their roles in burying the Hunter Biden laptop story — the same federal government that has spent years hunting down grandmas who walked through the Capitol on January 6.
Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui dismissed the criminal complaint against former FBI counterintelligence officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides on Monday, ruling prosecutors failed to show probable cause that the pair knowingly made false statements to the House Judiciary Committee in 2023. Faruqui went further, accusing the Justice Department of "weaponization" by rushing charges just 10 days before the midterm elections. "I will not bury my head in the sand and pretend I cannot read a calendar," Faruqui said.
Here is the timeline. Floris and Benavides both supervised the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force — the same outfit that flagged the Hunter Biden laptop as potential Russian disinformation ahead of the 2020 election. Fifty-one former intelligence officials then signed a letter echoing that claim. The New York Post broke the laptop story in October 2020. By the time Hunter Biden stood trial on gun charges in 2024, an FBI agent confirmed the laptop was real.
When Congress finally asked Floris and Benavides what they knew, prosecutors alleged they downplayed their involvement. Benavides even told lawmakers he learned the particulars from Wikipedia. The government's own witness, FBI Special Agent Bryan Witt, reviewed "hundreds of thousands" of Floris's internal communications line by line. Floris's attorney Margaret Donovan argued her client supervised up to 600 employees and a few stray messages about Hunter Biden were bound to slip through the cracks. Faruqui bought it, ruling some statements weren't actually false and others were just "honest mistakes of memory."
The investigation itself was politically directed from the start. After President Trump's July primetime address on election security, FBI Director Kash Patel tasked the Kansas City field office with scrutinizing Floris the very next day. The agent on the case testified he worried the probe would appear "political." A prosecutor on the case, Carlton Davis — a top aide to Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro — even acknowledged the criminal complaint was flawed in a phone call, according to NBC News. Faruqui had already slapped prosecutors for filing a superseding complaint after midnight without a judge's permission.
The outlets mostly agree on the facts. The Guardian and Reuters framed the dismissal as a blow to Trump's efforts to "investigate people he views as adversaries." The New York Post, which broke the original laptop story, gave the most detail on the defense's semantic arguments. NBC noted that D.C. grand juries have been rejecting politically charged cases — including the failed indictment of Cassidy Hutchinson.
Prosecutors could still try to revive the case before a grand jury. Don't hold your breath.
Meanwhile, Americans who protested on January 6 — some of whom merely walked through open doors — have faced years in federal prison. The message from the bench is plain enough: when the FBI lies to cover up a story that changed a presidential election, it's an honest mistake. When an ordinary American questions the official narrative, it's a crime. The two-tiered system isn't a bug. It's the whole design.
