Two Former Senior FBI Officials Charged With Lying to Congress Over Hunter Biden Investigations
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on October 23 that two former senior Federal Bureau of Investigation officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, have been charged criminally, each with one count of making false statements to Congress. The two surrendered to authorities on Friday and made their initial appearances in federal court in Washington. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced the charges in a post on X. (GSM, based on reporting by CNN and USA Today)
According to the criminal complaint unsealed on Friday, Floris, 46, lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and Benavides, 56, lives in Aiken, South Carolina. The complaint says that when the two testified before the House Judiciary Committee in 2023, they concealed the FBI Foreign Influence Task Force's engagement with and communications about the Hunter Biden investigations and impeded the congressional investigation. Prosecutors say one of them testified that he had learned of the laptop investigation from Wikipedia, while internal emails, instant messages and witness accounts show the two discussed Hunter Biden's laptop before the 2020 election and helped shape the public narrative around it.
Floris served as a deputy assistant director overseeing the Foreign Influence Task Force from 2019 to 2022, and Benavides served as the task force's section chief from 2019 through the 2020 election. The task force, created in 2017 to counter covert foreign influence and election interference, has since been disbanded. A false-statements conviction carries a maximum of five years in prison for each defendant. The charges were brought in a 27-page criminal complaint rather than a grand jury indictment.
Announcing the charges, Pirro said: "When senior FBI agents lie to Congress believing they are above the law, it's time to bring the hammer of justice down on them." She added that when senior officials entrusted with safeguarding the nation's security choose deception over duty, they undermine the institutions they swore to uphold. FBI Director Kash Patel said the charges resulted from an investigation into the since-dissolved task force, that documentary evidence, contemporaneous communications and witness accounts contradicted the pair's testimony, and that "no one is above the law." Patel also said Floris was on record privately claiming to be running a "shadow government."
Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui, who presided over Friday's initial appearance, said the charges were related to "Hunter Biden's laptop and allegations around that." He described both defendants as longtime public servants with strong records and noted that bringing charges by criminal complaint over conduct from years earlier was unusual. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, October 27, and both defendants will remain free pending further proceedings.
The defense denied the allegations. Floris's lawyers said the charges rested on the say-so of politicians rather than the facts, called her a patriot, and said the decision to charge her was aimed at pushing a false narrative for political points. Representatives for the defense also questioned the case's reliance on secondhand accounts. A criminal complaint is only an allegation, and neither defendant has been convicted.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 位于华盛顿的联邦调查局总部 J. Edgar Hoover 大楼入口（资料图）。照片：Tony Webster，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons
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