Judge Strikes DOJ's Unsigned Obstruction Charge Against Ex-FBI Officials in Hunter Biden Laptop Case

A federal magistrate judge in Washington on Tuesday threw out a new obstruction charge the Justice Department tried to add against two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about investigations tied to Hunter Biden’s laptop, saying prosecutors skipped the step of getting a judge to approve it first.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui struck the superseding criminal complaint against Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides from the court docket during a contentious hearing, according to reports from NBC News, CNBC and ABC News. The original false-statement charges against both former officials remain pending.

What prosecutors filed

Floris, a former deputy assistant director in the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, and Benavides, another former senior counterintelligence official, were arrested last Friday and later released. A complaint announced by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro accuses each of making a false statement to the House Judiciary Committee in 2023 about how much they knew about, and were involved in, the Hunter Biden investigations. Prosecutors allege Floris lied on July 19, 2023, and Benavides on Sept. 28, 2023.

Shortly after midnight Tuesday, hours before a scheduled preliminary hearing, prosecutors in Pirro’s office posted a new complaint to the public docket. It sought to add counts accusing the pair of obstructing, and attempting to obstruct, a proceeding before Congress. CNBC reported that the document carried a signature block with Faruqui’s name typed in, but the judge had not signed it. ABC News reported that the FBI agent who swore out the complaint had not signed it either.

The filing argued there was probable cause to believe the two made their statements “for the purpose of minimizing or concealing” the engagement of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force with the Hunter Biden investigations “and to impede the Congressional investigation,” according to ABC News.

The judge’s response

A criminal complaint requires a judge to find probable cause before it takes effect. Faruqui said he had never seen prosecutors put an unsigned complaint on the record while waiting for that finding.

“I think that it is inappropriate and harms the defendant,” Faruqui said, according to ABC News. “I’m frustrated that I got it in the middle of the night, but I’m much more concerned that it’s filed on the public record.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Borchert acknowledged in court that “this has never been done before,” NBC News reported, and offered to have the judge sign it on the spot. Faruqui declined. He said prosecutors had created “their own category of charging” and asked why the department had not followed the practice used in “every other case in the history of this district.”

“Why today, on this one case, have you changed the entire history of how you charge cases?” the judge asked, according to CNBC.

NBC News reported that Faruqui said he did not doubt the line prosecutors acted in good faith but was concerned “this system is being misused by people of higher levels.”

Floris’ defense team had asked the court to remove the filing, calling it flawed and a bad-faith move. Mary Dohrmann, Floris’ attorney, said there was growing evidence that the prosecution is a “political football” rather than a case about “the law or the facts,” NBC News reported.

What comes next

Faruqui continued the hearing to decide whether prosecutors had shown probable cause for the original complaint filed last week. According to UPI, he said the department could still pursue new charges through standard procedures.

An FBI agent who investigated the pair testified Tuesday that he had worried the case would look “political,” NBC News reported.

Editor’s note: This report was compiled by the Kacee Allen Network News Desk from coverage of Tuesday’s hearing by NBC News, CNBC and ABC News, with UPI’s account checked for the judge’s ruling and next steps. Each quote and date was matched across at least two of those reports where possible, and quotes appear as those outlets reported them. The Network did not attend the hearing and has not reviewed the stricken complaint directly. The wording is original, and all facts and quotes are sourced from the outlets listed below.