Justice Department Charges Two Former FBI Executives Over Hunter Biden Laptop Testimony

The Justice Department charged two former senior FBI officials with perjury on Friday. The indictments target Nikki Floris, who formerly led the intelligence division in the Washington field office, and Bradley Benavides, a former deputy assistant director for counterintelligence. Prosecutors claim the pair deliberately withheld information while testifying before the House Judiciary Committee regarding the bureau’s handling of investigations into Hunter Biden.

If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum prison sentence of five years. Following a brief appearance before a federal magistrate judge, both men were released on bail on Friday morning. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who is leading the prosecution, stated that the officials undermined the institutions they served. She described the act of lying to Congress as a strike against the democratic system and called for the application of justice against senior agents who believed they were above the law.

An FBI affidavit outlines specific allegations against Floris. It claims she denied involvement in the Hunter Biden investigations during her 2023 testimony, despite maintaining frequent communication with the case team for over a year. The document further states that she claimed ignorance of the laptop while actually coordinating the FBI’s real-time response to news coverage about it.

Benavides testified months after Floris. The affidavit says he told the committee he knew little about the matter, claiming he learned of the laptop from a Wikipedia entry while preparing his remarks. Prosecutors argue he was actually in constant communication about the device for several days. A committee member stated that these answers shaped the investigation, potentially blocking follow-up interviews and subpoenas.

Defense attorneys for both officials have disputed the charges. Floris’s lawyers argued the government relied on political claims rather than facts and described her as a patriot who served as an FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years. They noted that the case was filed years later, on the eve of an election. Ron Safer, Benavides’s attorney, asked the court to hold a hearing to determine if prosecutors possessed sufficient evidence against two lifetime public servants.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui granted the defense request for a hearing to evaluate the government’s evidence. The session is scheduled for Tuesday, a timeline shorter than standard for defendants released on bail. Faruqui expressed concern about the age of the charges, noting they were filed more than three years after the original testimony. He described the defendants’ backgrounds as sparkling and acknowledged their interest in clearing their names quickly.

Faruqui used the metaphor of a Sword of Damocles to describe the pending charges, suggesting the matter would follow the defendants for the rest of their lives. The laptop at the center of the dispute was handed to the FBI in 2019 after a computer shop owner reported that Hunter Biden left it and never returned for it. The owner told the Washington Post he turned the device over to authorities after viewing some of its contents.

The case occurs amid a broader exodus of FBI agents who worked on investigations involving President Donald Trump. Since the start of his second term, many agents accused of working against the president have been pushed out of the bureau. Some former staff say they were dismissed for working on Trump-related cases, while others cite a lack of perceived loyalty as the reason for their departure.