Ex-FBI officials face court on laptop lie charges

Former FBI officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides appear in federal court in Washington, D.C., Tuesday. They face criminal charges alleging they told Congress false statements about their knowledge of the Hunter Biden laptop investigation. The case arrived in court on the same day the Justice Department announced the charges on Friday.

Prosecutors claim the pair misled lawmakers in 2023. They allegedly denied having current knowledge of a laptop that Justice Department officials say Hunter Biden left at a computer repair shop in 2019. Defense attorneys have called the case baseless and politically motivated. They plan to challenge the proceedings at the preliminary hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

The legal team will point to the unusual method used to bring the charges. A magistrate judge signed the criminal complaint instead of a grand jury voting on an indictment. The Justice Department has had difficulty securing grand jury indictments for high-profile cases in the capital in recent years.

The laptop surfaced in 2020 when the New York Post reported on its contents. The newspaper said it received the hard drive from Rudy Giuliani, an ally of President Donald Trump. The Post published emails that appeared to detail Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. The discovery occurred in the final weeks of the 2020 presidential race.

Democrats and former intelligence officials questioned how the device ended up with the New York Post. Concerns grew that Russian actors might have been involved. The Trump administration’s intelligence community had assessed that Moscow was trying to undermine Joe Biden’s candidacy. John Ratcliffe, the then-national intelligence director, stated there were no signs of Russian involvement. The FBI investigated Hunter Biden on gun and tax charges, leading to felony convictions. President Biden pardoned his son in late 2024.

Floris and Benavides led the Foreign Influence Task Force. The Trump administration created the unit to monitor influence campaigns from Russia and other nations. In August 2020, the two officials briefed Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson. The senators were investigating Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine. The briefing leaked, and the lawmakers criticized the FBI. They said their investigation was discredited and falsely linked to Russian disinformation efforts.

Congressional Republicans have long criticized the task force. They argued the unit tried to discredit their own probes into the Biden family. The task force was disbanded in February 2025 by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. The prosecution marks a rare criminal case against former employees of the Justice Department.

The trial date has not been set. The preliminary hearing will determine the next steps in the case. Floris and Benavides remain in the custody of the federal system while the court reviews the evidence. The case sits against the backdrop of next week’s midterm elections.