Judge Dismisses the Case Against Two Ex-FBI Officials Accused of Lying to Congress About the Hunter Biden Probe, Calling It 'Weaponization'
Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui threw out the criminal complaint from the bench Monday and called the prosecution a 'rush job' directed by the president and the FBI director. Fox News says it asked the White House and the FBI for comment.
A federal judge on Monday dismissed the criminal charges against two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about the Hunter Biden investigation, and said the Justice Department's handling of the case amounted to "weaponization," Fox News reports.
The ruling. U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui dismissed the complaint against Nikki Cole Floris and Bradley Benavides from the bench. "What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization," he said, calling the case a "rush job" directed by President Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel.
The charges. Prosecutors said Floris and Benavides made false statements in 2023 congressional interviews about what they knew and did, and that internal FBI communications and witness accounts contradicted them. The case grew out of Republican claims that the bureau mishandled information about Hunter Biden's laptop before the 2020 election. Republicans have long argued that political bias shaped those decisions.
How it got here. The government filed a criminal complaint rather than seeking a grand jury indictment. At a hearing last week, Faruqui criticized prosecutors for filing an unsigned, unsworn complaint that tried to add obstruction charges without the court's approval. He struck that revised complaint from the record, which left prosecutors with the original false-statement allegations. Defense lawyers said the revised version also softened the government's first account of the officials' roles in the Hunter Biden investigations. We covered last week's hearing when it happened.
The judge's record. Fox notes that Faruqui has criticized federal prosecutors in other cases involving the Trump administration, including U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office in Washington. It also notes he apologized to a man accused of plotting to assassinate Trump at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, over the harsh conditions of his jail custody.
What we do not know. Fox says it asked the White House and the FBI for comment. Its report does not include a response, and we do not know whether the Justice Department will appeal or bring the case again another way. The characterizations of the prosecution are the judge's, and we have not reviewed the court filings.