Two former FBI officials were charged Friday with lying to Congress about the bureau’s role in the investigations of Hunter Biden, including his laptop, the Justice Department said.
Nikki Floris, 46, of Alexandria, Virginia, and Bradley Benavides, 56, of Aiken, South Carolina, each face one count of making false statements to Congress. Both surrendered Friday on arrest warrants, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington said.
What the former FBI officials allegedly told Congress
Both worked on the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, which has since been dissolved. Floris led the unit as a deputy assistant director from mid-2019 to mid-2022, and Benavides was a section chief there through the 2020 election.
Prosecutors say the two told the House Judiciary Committee in 2023 that the task force had no role in the Hunter Biden investigations. Floris allegedly said she took part in no discussions about Hunter Biden, while Benavides allegedly said he learned the FBI had the laptop from reading a Wikipedia article in 2023.
An affidavit says “documentary evidence, contemporaneous communications, and witness accounts contradict their Congressional testimony,” according to the Justice Department. Both had been warned that lying to Congress is a crime.
“Lying to Congress by anyone strikes at the heart of our democratic system,” said Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
Defense calls the charges political
Lawyers for Floris called her “a patriot” and said the Justice Department “has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts,” CBS News reported.
“It’s no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election,” the statement said. No statement from lawyers for Benavides was reported.
In a separate matter, the Trump administration earlier ended its probe into former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen without bringing criminal charges.
The charges are allegations, and both are presumed innocent unless proven guilty. A false statements charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.