POLPolitics NO. ---

Ex-FBI officials charged with lying to Congress over Hunter Biden

Prosecutors say the two former leaders of the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force denied involvement in the laptop investigations even though messages show they were regularly briefed. Floris's lawyers say the charges are politically timed, 10 days before the Nov. 3 midterms.

By Rowan Ashby Published 24.10.26 19:16 UTC 6 min read

The J. Edgar Hoover Building, FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., where the Foreign Influence Task Force was based — Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0 · Source

Key takeaways

Former FBI officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides are each charged with one count of making false statements to the House Judiciary Committee in 2023.
Prosecutors allege both denied involvement in the Hunter Biden laptop investigations even though messages from the time show they were regularly briefed on them.
Both held senior roles on the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), a unit that was disbanded in February 2025.
A magistrate judge set a preliminary hearing for Tuesday, Oct. 27, rejecting a prosecution request for more time.
Floris's lawyers say the charges are politically timed, coming 10 days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Both defendants are presumed innocent.

Two former FBI officials have been charged with lying to Congress about the Hunter Biden laptop probes. Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides made first appearances in federal court in Washington on Friday, Oct. 23, according to CBS News and the Associated Press.

Each faces a single count under a criminal complaint, not a grand jury indictment. That procedural choice drew comment from the bench and from defence lawyers, who say they will fight the case.

What the complaint alleges against the ex-FBI officials

The complaint charges each defendant with making a false statement in a matter within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch under 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2), Mediaite reported. The statements came from interviews with the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, which was examining how the FBI handled the laptop before the 2020 election.

Nikki Floris, 46, spoke to the committee on July 19, 2023. Prosecutors allege she denied any involvement in the Hunter Biden investigation. According to the Justice Department, as reported by Mediaite, she discussed those investigations routinely for more than a year.
Bradley Benavides, 56, sat for a committee interview in September 2023. Prosecutors allege he said he learned details of the laptop investigation from Wikipedia and denied knowing about it while at the FBI. The complaint says he regularly discussed the laptop with FBI officials before the 2020 election.

According to CBS News, the complaint says both officials were in frequent contact with the case team and took part in FITF's classified briefings on the Hunter Biden matter. It also describes an effort called "Round River," which prosecutors allege was aimed at flagging informant reporting about Hunter Biden as Russian disinformation. The defendants have not responded publicly to that specific allegation.

The complaint further says the pair helped prepare an Aug. 6, 2020, defensive briefing for Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, CBS reported. A congressional staffer who attended both 2023 interviews described the testimony as "materially untrue," according to the complaint as summarised by CBS.

The defendants at a glance

Detail	Nikki Floris	Bradley Benavides
Age	46	56
Role on the Foreign Influence Task Force	Deputy assistant director leading FITF, mid-2019 to mid-2022	FITF section chief, mid-2019 through the 2020 election
Last FBI post cited	Intelligence analyst in charge, Washington Field Office	Deputy assistant director, Counterintelligence Division
Testimony at issue	House Judiciary Committee interview, July 19, 2023	House Judiciary Committee interview, September 2023
Charge	One count, false statements (18 U.S.C. § 1001)	One count, false statements (18 U.S.C. § 1001)
Maximum penalty under the statute	5 years in prison	5 years in prison

Sources: CBS News, Mediaite and the AP (Oct. 23, 2026); statute text via Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute. A maximum penalty is not a predicted sentence.

What happens next in court

U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui of the federal district court in Washington handled the first appearances. He called the decision to charge "quite old" conduct by complaint unusual and said it was "rare that we have charges this old coming in this nature," according to Mediaite. CBS reported that he described the case as a "Sword of Damocles" that would follow the defendants for the rest of their lives.

Prosecutors asked to push the preliminary hearing back by two weeks or more. Faruqui refused and ordered both sides back at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27. At a preliminary hearing, the government must show probable cause that a crime was committed; prosecutors can also seek a grand jury indictment instead.

Ron Safer, the lawyer for Benavides, told the court the conduct happened years ago and that the government "has had the information about this for years," CBS reported. He asked for a quick hearing. James Kirkpatrick, a special assistant U.S. attorney detailed from the Western District of Missouri, appeared for the government alongside the criminal chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, led by Jeanine Pirro.

Defence says the charges are political

Floris's attorneys called her "a patriot" who served as an FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years. In a statement quoted by the AP, they said the Justice Department "has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts." They added that it was "no coincidence" the charges came "on the eve of an election." Lawyers for both defendants argue the department is trying to revive the laptop controversy before the Nov. 3 vote, Al Jazeera reported.

FBI Director Kash Patel backed the case. In a post on X, he wrote: "Lying to Congress by senior FBI officials strikes at the heart of our system. No one is above the law." The AP noted that Patel, once a sharp critic of the bureau, has been reviewing high-profile episodes from its recent past.

Background: the laptop and the task force

The New York Post revealed the laptop in October 2020, weeks before the presidential election, saying it got a copy of the hard drive from Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. The computer had been left at a repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware. Some former intelligence officials warned at the time that the story had hallmarks of Russian disinformation; the FBI later verified the laptop and its contents as authentic, according to the AP.

Material from the laptop was later used in federal cases against Hunter Biden. He was convicted on gun charges and pleaded guilty to tax offences, and President Joe Biden pardoned him before leaving office. He was never charged over his foreign business dealings.

The FITF was created during President Donald Trump's first term to counter foreign influence operations. Congressional Republicans later accused it of political bias in its handling of the laptop. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded the unit in February 2025, the AP reported.

Timing: DOJ actions days before the midterms

The Justice Department has traditionally avoided overt investigative steps close to an election. The AP and Al Jazeera noted that this case is one of several politically charged actions in recent days, including a search of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar's home in an immigration fraud investigation and a corruption indictment unsealed on Oct. 22 against Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas. The department has also sued Alaska over certification of its Senate race.

CBS added that the department has used out-of-district prosecutors in other contested cases. The cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were both dismissed after a judge found that the interim U.S. attorney who brought them had been unlawfully appointed.

Foreign interference itself remains a live issue this cycle, as shown by the dispute between Washington and Ottawa over midterm interference claims. More coverage of the race is collected on our Midterm Elections 2026 page.

What it means

The case is a rare criminal prosecution by the Justice Department of former FBI employees over testimony to Congress. It turns a long-running Republican grievance about the laptop into a court test with a much higher bar than a political argument: prosecutors must prove the statements were knowingly false and material.

The first test comes quickly. If prosecutors cannot show probable cause on Oct. 27, or choose to seek an indictment instead, the timeline could slip past Election Day. The judge's early remarks about the age of the conduct and the charging method suggest scrutiny of how the case was built. For now, Floris and Benavides have only been charged; neither has been convicted of any crime.

Frequently asked questions

Which FBI officials were charged over the Hunter Biden laptop?

Nikki Floris, 46, and Bradley Benavides, 56, both former senior officials on the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force. Each was charged on Oct. 23, 2026, with one count of making false statements to the House Judiciary Committee.

What are Floris and Benavides accused of lying about?

Prosecutors allege that in 2023 committee interviews they denied involvement in, or knowledge of, the FBI's Hunter Biden laptop investigations, while messages from the time show they were regularly briefed on them. Both are presumed innocent.

What is the maximum sentence for lying to Congress?

The false statements law, 18 U.S.C. § 1001, carries a maximum of five years in prison, or eight years in terrorism-related cases. Actual sentences are set by a judge and are often far lower.

When is the next court date in the case?

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, in federal court in Washington, after Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui rejected a prosecution request for more time.