Two Former FBI Officials Charged With Lying to Congress About Hunter Biden Laptop Investigations

The Justice Department on Friday charged two former senior FBI officials with making false statements to Congress about what they knew of the bureau’s investigations into Hunter Biden, including the examination of his laptop, before the 2020 presidential election.

Nikki Floris, 46, and Bradley Benavides, 56, each face one count of violating the federal false-statements law, according to a criminal complaint and a sworn FBI affidavit filed in federal court in Washington. Both surrendered and made a first court appearance Friday morning, NPR and CBS News reported.

What the complaint alleges

Both former officials led the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, a unit set up to counter foreign interference that the bureau disbanded in 2025. According to the affidavit, Floris was its deputy assistant director and functional head from mid-2019 to mid-2022, while Benavides ran the unit as section chief from mid-2019 until the 2020 vote.

Prosecutors say Floris gave false answers in a July 19, 2023, interview with the House Judiciary Committee, and Benavides did the same on Sept. 28, 2023. The complaint quotes Floris answering “I did not” when asked whether she had any involvement in the Hunter Biden investigation. Benavides allegedly told investigators he learned some details about the laptop inquiry from Wikipedia while preparing for his interview.

The affidavit says documents, messages and witness accounts contradict that testimony. It states that FBI Baltimore obtained the laptop’s contents from a computer repair shop on Dec. 9, 2019, and that the task force hosted classified briefings on the Hunter Biden case in which both officials took part. An FBI unit chief interviewed this month told agents the pair had been involved in and aware of the investigations, according to the filing.

The complaint also describes a task force operation called “Round River” and says both officials reviewed material used to prepare defensive briefings given on Aug. 6, 2020, to Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson about possible Russian disinformation. Prosecutors argue the alleged false statements were material because they let the two avoid further questioning and hindered the committee’s work.

Prosecutors, defense and the judge

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a statement on X that the pair “allegedly lied to Congress about their roles in the FBI’s Hunter Biden investigations.”

Lawyers for Floris said she had been falsely accused, called the charges “nonsense” and questioned why they were filed years after the testimony and shortly before an election, according to statements reported by CBS News and NPR. Ron Safer, who represents Benavides, told the court, “The alleged conduct happened years ago,” and asked for a prompt preliminary hearing to test whether probable cause exists.

Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui called the way the case was brought “strange,” according to CBS News, and turned down a prosecution request to push the preliminary hearing back two weeks or more. NPR reported the judge noted that both defendants have “sparkling backgrounds” in federal law enforcement. The two are due back in court Tuesday.

Because the case was filed by criminal complaint, prosecutors have not yet obtained a grand jury indictment. A complaint is an accusation, and both defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Background

Hunter Biden’s laptop became a campaign issue after the New York Post reported in October 2020 that it had been left at a Delaware repair shop. Hunter Biden was later convicted on federal gun charges and pleaded guilty to tax offenses, and his father, former President Joe Biden, pardoned him in December 2024. The charges come less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.