Former FBI Officials Ask Judge to Dismiss Case Over Statements to Congress

Defense lawyers urged a federal judge in Washington on Thursday to throw out the criminal complaint against two former FBI officials.

The case accuses Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides of lying to the House Judiciary Committee in 2023 about what they knew concerning a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden. The Justice Department says Hunter Biden dropped the device at a computer repair shop in 2019. The laptop became public a year later, during the final weeks of the presidential race.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui heard the arguments but did not rule immediately. The judge's decision is expected next week. A dismissal would not block the Justice Department from seeking charges again through a grand jury indictment.

Mary Dohrmann, a lawyer for Floris, told the court that political motivation undermines the case. "A political prosecution is always going to make for a shaky foundation for a criminal case," she said.

The prosecution presented its own account of how the case began. James Kirkpatrick, a Justice Department prosecutor, told the court that the investigation was ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel. FBI special agent Bryan Witt testified that Patel requested regular updates on the work. Witt also said he viewed the inquiry as a "huge distraction" from other assignments and understood it could be seen as political.

Witt testified that the FBI was directed to look into Floris after a July primetime speech by President Donald Trump. In that address, Trump repeated claims about the 2020 election that have been debunked. The White House also raised a disputed FBI intelligence report about Chinese efforts to influence the election on Joe Biden's behalf. The FBI recalled that memo after determining the information lacked sufficient corroboration. Floris has drawn criticism from Trump's allies over her role in that recall decision.

Kirkpatrick argued that both defendants had reason to say little about the laptop. He noted that Hunter Biden's father was president when the two testified before Congress. Kirkpatrick said the Foreign Influence Task Force never corrected statements from Democrats and former intelligence officials that the laptop might be tied to Russian disinformation. "At the end of the day, the FITF got it wrong," Kirkpatrick said. "They didn't quash the narrative that this laptop was the product of Russian disinformation. They didn't correct the record."

Ron Safer, a lawyer for Benavides, rejected the idea that his client had any motive to mislead. "There is absolutely zero proof that Mr. Benavides knew and remembered and misled," Safer told the court. He said any inaccurate answer would have come from vague questions or a faulty memory.

The Justice Department filed the case as a criminal complaint rather than a grand jury indictment, a step usually reserved for taking someone into custody quickly. The filing came more than a week before the midterm elections. Grand juries in Washington have repeatedly declined to approve charges in politically sensitive matters, and prosecutors would still need an indictment for the case to proceed.