Ex-FBI Officials Charged Over 2023 Testimony About Hunter Biden Laptop

The Justice Department filed charges Friday against two former FBI executives for allegedly lying to Congress about their involvement in investigations related to Hunter Biden's laptop.

Prosecutors accuse Nikki Floris, a former analyst who led the intelligence division at the FBI's Washington field office, and Bradley Benavides, a former deputy assistant director for counterintelligence, of deliberately withholding information during their 2023 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. Each faces up to five years in prison if convicted. Both appeared briefly before a federal magistrate judge and were released Friday morning.

An FBI affidavit states that Floris repeatedly denied participating in the Hunter Biden investigations while actually corresponding with the case team for more than a year. The document also says she told the committee she knew nothing about the laptop, although she had coordinated the bureau's response to news coverage about it in real time. Benavides, who testified months after Floris, told the panel he learned of the laptop through a Wikipedia entry while preparing for the hearing; investigators say he was in constant contact about the device over several days. A committee member later said the answers hindered follow-up interviews and subpoenas.

US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, whose office is prosecuting the case, said the pair undermined "the very institutions they swore to uphold." She added that lying to Congress strikes at the heart of the democratic system, and that when senior FBI agents do so believing they are above the law, "it's time to bring the hammer of justice down on them." Lawyers for Floris rejected the claims, calling her a patriot who served as an FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years, while Ron Safer, attorney for Benavides, asked the court to weigh whether prosecutors had enough evidence against "two lifetime public servants."

US Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui set an evidence hearing for Tuesday, a schedule he called unusual for defendants already released. He said charges filed more than three years after the testimony raised questions about timing and materiality, adding, "It's certainly rare," he said, "But it is more rare that we have charges that are this old of this nature." Faruqui described both defendants as having "sparkling backgrounds" in law enforcement and noted, "There is a Sword of Damocles hanging over their head."

The laptop was given to the FBI in 2019 after a computer shop owner said Hunter Biden dropped it off and never retrieved it. Republicans have cited the device as evidence of corruption within the Biden family; Democrats call it part of a Republican conspiracy. The charges come as agents whom allies of President Donald Trump accused of working against him have been pushed out of the bureau since the start of his second term. Some said they were dismissed for working on Trump-related investigations, while others said they were fired for insufficient loyalty.