A federal magistrate judge has dismissed the case against two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about investigations into Hunter Biden, after condemning the Justice Department’s handling of the prosecution.
Judge Zia Faruqui said the investigation into Bradley Benavides and Nikki Floris appeared rushed and was marked by serious errors. He described the proceedings as “weaponization” during a hearing in Washington DC.
Benavides and Floris were charged about two weeks ago over alleged false statements made to Congress in 2023 concerning their knowledge of the FBI’s investigations into the son of former president Joe Biden.
The prosecution was one of several politically charged actions brought by the Justice Department under President Trump in the run-up to Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Faruqui said the alleged statements had been made three years earlier, yet prosecutors had waited until shortly before the elections to bring the case. He also pointed to Justice Department policy prohibiting action intended to influence an election.
The charges were filed as a criminal complaint, a procedure normally used where urgent circumstances exist, such as an imminent danger, an approaching limitation deadline or a risk that a suspect will flee.
“The only event that was looming here,” Faruqui said, was the midterm election.
“I will not bury my head in the sand and pretend I cannot read a calendar,” he added. “I will not lobotomize myself that way.”
The judge said the investigation had been opened on the orders of FBI director Kash Patel the day after President Trump made a televised address in which he repeated false claims about fraud in the 2020 election and urged the FBI to investigate.
Faruqui’s ruling followed a days-long preliminary hearing last week on whether there was probable cause to charge the former officials. The hearing included evidence from an FBI agent involved in the investigation.
He also questioned why prosecutors had apparently chosen not to take the case before a grand jury, suggesting that recent grand juries in Washington had made it more difficult for the Justice Department to secure indictments in politically sensitive cases.
The dismissal does not prevent prosecutors from presenting the case to a grand jury. The government could also appeal the ruling to the district’s chief judge.
The US Attorney’s Office in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Outside the courtroom, former FBI officials gathered to greet Floris and Benavides. Floris, who had tears in her eyes, hugged several former colleagues before embracing Benavides.
Margaret Donovan, one of Floris’s lawyers, said: “This case should never have been brought. The government had no case.”
She described the complaint as a “slap-dash” effort, but added: “Facts still matter in a courtroom. The truth still matters in a courtroom. And that’s what we say prevailed today.”
