The Justice Department has charged two former FBI employees with making false statements to Congress in connection with the bureau's investigations into Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden.
Bradley Benavides, 56, and Nikki Floris, 46, each face a single criminal count stemming from testimony before lawmakers in 2023. They were charged by complaint, meaning prosecutors have yet to secure an indictment from a grand jury.
In a statement, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro, said Floris and Benavides "allegedly lied to Congress about their roles in the FBI's Hunter Biden investigations, with one claiming they only learned about it from Wikipedia — despite evidence showing their involvement in helping shape the public narrative about Hunter Biden's laptop right before the election."
Both defendants appeared in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Friday before Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui.
Faruqui noted that both defendants have "sparkling backgrounds" in federal law enforcement and were longtime dedicated public servants. He also observed that charging them by criminal complaint for conduct that is "quite old" is unusual.
Benavides and Floris are due back in court for a preliminary hearing on Tuesday.
The charges relate to the FBI's handling of Hunter Biden's laptop, which became the subject of intense scrutiny after reports emerged weeks before the 2020 presidential election that the device had been abandoned at a Delaware repair shop in 2019 and subsequently obtained by Rudy Giuliani, then-President Trump's personal lawyer.
Republicans have long accused the FBI of mishandling the laptop and the broader investigations into the younger Biden. Some of the data on the laptop was later confirmed to belong to Hunter Biden.
House Republicans subsequently launched an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, focusing on Hunter Biden's business dealings during the period when his father served as vice president. No evidence was ever presented that Joe Biden financially benefited from his son's business activities.
Hunter Biden was convicted of federal gun charges and later pleaded guilty to separate tax offenses. President Joe Biden signed a full and unconditional pardon for his son in December 2024, shortly before leaving the White House.
