Trump's DOJ Charges Two Ex-FBI Officials With Lying to Congress About Hunter Biden Laptop

The Justice Department charged two former senior FBI counterintelligence officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, on Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, with lying to Congress about their roles in the FBI's Hunter Biden investigations. Floris allegedly denied in July 2023 testimony that she had any involvement in the probe or that her task force ever discussed him, despite being in frequent contact with the case team for over a year. Benavides allegedly told a September 2023 House Judiciary interview he learned about the laptop investigation only from Wikipedia, though an FBI employee says he discussed its contents with Benavides directly.

Ahead of a Tuesday hearing, prosecutors filed an overnight amended complaint adding a charge of obstructing a congressional proceeding; Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui called the move "strange," struck it from the docket, and refused to delay the hearing. Floris's and Benavides's attorneys called the charging approach "a serious abuse of the criminal charging process," saying it bypassed normal safeguards and came roughly two weeks before the midterm election.

No trial date has been set. The case extends DOJ's pattern of criminal cases against officials tied to investigations the administration views as adverse, alongside its prosecutions of James Comey and John Bolton.