On Thursday, defense attorneys requested a federal judge to dismiss a criminal complaint against two former FBI officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, charging them with making false statements to Congress regarding Hunter Biden. The defense claims that the case stems from politically motivated prosecution intended to appease President Donald Trump.
The defense's arguments concluded a days-long hearing in which they characterized the charges as legally flawed and politically influenced. The case is one of several high-profile actions by the Justice Department that have emerged in the lead-up to the midterm elections scheduled for next week. Testimony during the hearing revealed that the investigation was initiated by FBI Director Kash Patel, coinciding with a primetime speech by Trump about election security, in which he reiterated grievances about his 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.
Mary Dohrmann, a lawyer for Floris, stated, "A political prosecution is always going to make for a shaky foundation for a criminal case." Both Floris and Benavides are accused of downplaying their knowledge of a laptop Hunter Biden allegedly dropped off at a computer repair shop in 2019. This laptop gained significant attention a year later and became a topic of major contention during the final weeks of the presidential race.
The decision from U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui regarding the defense's dismissal request is expected next week. Should the complaint be dismissed, the Justice Department could still pursue an indictment, which may be challenging given that grand juries in Washington, D.C., have a history of rejecting charges in politically sensitive cases. Even if the complaint is upheld, prosecutors will need to obtain a grand jury indictment for any further legal action.
The false statements in question were made in 2023 before the House Judiciary Committee, amidst its own inquiry into Hunter Biden. The complaint alleges that while the two officials minimized their knowledge of the laptop, they engaged in several discussions about it. Prosecutor James Kirkpatrick argued that the former officials had a motive to downplay their involvement due to concerns over the political ramifications of discussing Hunter Biden and the laptop while his father held the presidency.
Kirkpatrick noted, "At the end of the day, the FITF got it wrong," referring to the Foreign Intelligence Task Force that had not publicly corrected narratives suggesting the laptop was associated with Russian disinformation. Trump's then-intelligence director, John Ratcliffe, had previously stated that there were no indications of foreign interference in the laptop's publication.
Defense counsels contended that their clients had not lied and had no reason to do so. Any potentially inaccurate statements, they argued, stemmed from vague questioning or memory issues. "There is absolutely zero proof that Mr. Benavides knew and remembered and misled," said Ron Safer, a lawyer for Benavides, asserting that the prosecution must demonstrate that any statements made were intentional rather than incidental or due to confusion.
The complaint was filed less than two weeks before the midterm elections, through an unusual method—using a criminal complaint rather than a grand jury indictment, which is typically employed for swift apprehension. Testimony from Bryan Witt, an FBI special agent involved in the investigation, suggested that he believed the inquiry was a significant distraction from his work and acknowledged a perception that it had political overtones. He stated that Patel had taken a keen interest in the case, requesting frequent updates.
Witt also testified that the FBI was directed to investigate Floris following a July speech where Trump exacerbated unsupported theories surrounding his electoral defeat. At the time, the White House expressed concerns about an FBI report alleging Chinese influence in the election, which was later retracted due to a lack of corroborative evidence. Floris has faced notable criticism from Trump’s allies over her part in recalling that report.
