Judge dismisses fraud case against ex-FBI agents citing rushed timeline

U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui dismissed a criminal complaint against two former FBI officials on Monday, declaring the case a product of "weaponization." The ruling drops charges against Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, who were accused of lying to Congress regarding their knowledge of the Hunter Biden laptop investigation.

Faruqui described the investigation as rushed and overtly political in a ruling read from the bench. He noted that the inquiry began one day after President Donald Trump delivered a primetime speech in which he detailed his grievances over the 2020 election loss. The judge emphasized that the Department of Justice chose to file the complaint two weeks before Tuesday's midterm elections, despite the underlying statements dating back to 2023.

"I will not bury my head in the sand and pretend that I cannot read a calendar," Faruqui said. The decision follows a preliminary hearing where the judge criticized prosecutors for their handling of the case. He pointed out that the department filed an amended complaint with an additional charge overnight directly to the docket, a procedure he said he had never encountered before.

The judge also questioned why the government used a criminal complaint instead of seeking a grand jury indictment. Criminal complaints are typically reserved for situations requiring immediate custody, whereas indictments require approval from a grand jury. Faruqui argued that the standard process was bypassed to expedite the timeline.

An FBI agent who worked on the case testified during the hearing that he was concerned the investigation would be viewed as political. The agent confirmed the probe was mandated by FBI Director Kash Patel, who maintained close oversight of the proceedings. This testimony supported the judge's finding that the case was driven by high-level directives rather than routine law enforcement needs.

The original charges alleged that Floris and Benavides misled members of Congress in 2023 about their involvement in investigating a laptop associated with Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden. The Justice Department stated the laptop was dropped off at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019. The agents were accused of concealing their knowledge of efforts to examine the device.

The case also echoed complaints from Trump and Republican allies that the FBI attempted to suppress information during the 2020 campaign that could have harmed the Biden family. Candidate Joe Biden, a Democrat, defeated incumbent Republican Donald Trump in that election. The government's filing noted that the two officials gave lawmakers a "defensive briefing" in 2020.

Republican Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin stated that this briefing was used to undermine their investigation into the Biden administration and link it to Russian disinformation. Their accounts were part of the evidence presented in the dismissed complaint.

The Department of Justice retains the option to seek a grand jury indictment against Floris and Benavides. The lawyers for the former officials had argued for the dismissal of the charges. The ruling represents a setback for the department, which has faced challenges in persuading grand juries in the nation's capital to return indictments in politically sensitive prosecutions.

The dismissal does not resolve the underlying dispute over the agents' 2023 statements to Congress. It ends the specific criminal complaint filed in late October. The two former officials remain free from the immediate threat of trial based on the current charges.