New charges tossed against ex-FBI officials in Hunter Biden probe
The unsigned and unsworn superseding complaint comes just hours before the defendants were due to appear in federal court in Washington, D.C. for a preliminary hearing.
Key points
- A federal magistrate judge rejected the Justice Department's overnight attempt to file new criminal charges against former FBI officials Bradley Benavides and Nicole Floris.
- Judge Zia Faruqui ordered the unsigned, unsworn superseding complaint struck from the record and said the original lying-to-Congress complaint remains intact.
- An FBI agent testified that he had concerns the investigation could be viewed as political and controversial.
A federal magistrate judge on Tuesday rejected the Justice Department's attempt to file new criminal charges against two former FBI counterintelligence officials accused of lying to Congress about their role in the Hunter Biden laptop probe. Judge Zia Faruqui of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered that the new charging documents against Bradley Benavides and Nicole Floris be struck from the record.
The superseding complaint was filed after midnight on the public court docket without being sworn or signed, and Faruqui said it bypassed judicial review. The docket was later updated to say the filings were entered in error, and the original criminal complaint filed last week remains intact.
Judge questions DOJ motives
Faruqui said filing an unsworn complaint on the public docket without judicial review is unheard of and raises questions about the department's motivations. He called the move inappropriate and said it harms the defendants.
Prosecutor John Borchert conceded that adding fresh charges without judicial review was a first for him as well. Defense attorneys objected to a proposal to have the FBI agent swear to the filing, with one calling it Kafkaesque.
We have never had complaints filed that are unsigned
— Judge Zia Faruqui
Agent testifies on origins
FBI agent Bryan Witt, who signed the affidavit, said the case was assigned to him in July after FBI Director Kash Patel gave it to the Kansas City field office. He said the assignment was unusual and that he had concerns it would be viewed as political.
The charges center on testimony Floris and Benavides gave to a congressional committee in July and September 2023 about their roles on the Foreign Influence Task Force and its Round River operation. The hearing is expected to continue on Wednesday.
