Judge Throws Out Case Against Two Ex-FBI Officials Accused of Lying to Congress About Hunter Biden Probes, Calls It 'Weaponization'
A federal magistrate judge in Washington on Monday dismissed the criminal complaint against two former senior FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about the bureau's Hunter Biden investigations, delivering a sharp rebuke of the Justice Department's handling of the case.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui dismissed the complaint against Nikki Cole Floris and Bradley Benavides from the bench, Fox News reported. "What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization," Faruqui said, according to Fox News, which reported that he described the case as a "rush job" directed by President Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel.
What Prosecutors Alleged About Hunter Biden Testimony
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia announced the charges on Oct. 23, when Floris, 46, of Alexandria, Virginia, and Benavides, 56, of Aiken, South Carolina, surrendered on arrest warrants. Each was charged with one count of making false statements in a matter within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch, under 18 U.S.C. 1001(a)(2).
According to the office's press release, Floris led the FBI's since-dissolved Foreign Influence Task Force as a deputy assistant director from mid-2019 to mid-2022, and Benavides was its section chief through the 2020 election. Both were interviewed by the House Judiciary Committee in 2023. Prosecutors alleged that Floris told the committee she "was involved in no discussions about Hunter Biden" at the task force, and that Benavides testified he "only learned of the FBI's possession of Hunter Biden's laptop from reading a Wikipedia article in 2023." The release said "documentary evidence, contemporaneous communications, and witness accounts contradict their Congressional testimony." It also noted that "charges in a complaint are merely allegations."
"Weaponization will never be tolerated at this FBI," Patel said in the Oct. 23 release. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said the case showed "no one is above the law."
Lawyers for both former officials denied the charges when they were filed. Floris's attorney said the Justice Department "has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts," and Benavides's attorney called the charges "a disgrace," according to statements read on Fox News.
Video: Fox News (file, Oct. 23, 2026), statements from attorneys for Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides
Why the Judge Dismissed the Complaint
The dismissal capped a series of hearings in which Faruqui questioned why prosecutors proceeded by criminal complaint rather than a grand jury indictment, Fox News reported. At a preliminary hearing last week, he struck from the record an unsigned, unsworn revised complaint that sought to add obstruction charges without judicial approval, forcing prosecutors to proceed on the original false-statement allegations.
Defense attorneys argued the revised complaint also softened the government's original allegations about the officials' involvement in the Hunter Biden investigations, according to Fox News.
What Comes Next
The dismissal of a complaint does not by itself bar prosecutors from seeking an indictment from a grand jury, and the Washington Examiner reported that prosecutors could still do so. The Justice Department had not announced its next step as of publication.
Faruqui has clashed with prosecutors before. Fox News noted he previously accused Pirro's office of bringing some cases from the Trump administration's Washington law-enforcement surge in federal court that he said belonged in local court.
Update (Nov. 2, 2:30 p.m. ET): In a statement to The Digital Free Press, a Justice Department spokesperson said: "The Department disagrees with the Magistrate's decision, which remarkably appears to suggest that high-ranking government officials are immune from accountability for making materially false statements to Congress. We are evaluating all options but cannot comment further on an ongoing criminal investigation. The Department's actions will continue to be guided by the facts, the evidence, and the law – not politics."
A Justice Department official, speaking on background, said a colleague of the magistrate judge had already found probable cause for the allegations, which is why the complaint was originally signed and the defendants were charged, and noted that the affidavit from the signed complaint is publicly available.
Sources: U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, "Two Former FBI Officials Charged in Lying to Congress about Hunter Biden Investigations" (Oct. 23, 2026), https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/two-former-fbi-officials-charged-lying-congress-about-hunter-biden-investigations ; Fox News, "Judge tosses case against ex-FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about Hunter Biden investigation" (Nov. 2, 2026), https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judge-tosses-case-against-ex-fbi-officials-accused-lying-congress-hunter-biden-investigation ; Fox News video report (Oct. 23, 2026), https://www.foxnews.com/video/6407307093112 ; Washington Examiner (Nov. 2, 2026), https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/4787807/judge-dismisses-criminal-complaint-fbi-hunter-biden/
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