Federal judge dismisses case against former FBI agents over Hunter Biden laptop

A federal judge dismissed criminal charges against two former FBI officials on Monday.

The case involved accusations that the agents lied to Congress about their handling of the Hunter Biden laptop investigation. U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui ruled that the investigation suffered from critical mistakes and appeared overtly political.

Faruqui stated that the events leading to the charges represented weaponization of the legal process. He pointed to the timing of the investigation, which began one day after President Donald Trump delivered a primetime speech reviewing his grievances regarding the 2020 election. The judge noted that FBI Director Kash Patel mandated the probe and closely tracked its progress.

The Justice Department filed the criminal complaint two weeks before Tuesday's midterm elections. Faruqui observed that the department could have brought the case at any point since the statements were made in 2023. He said he would not pretend he could not read a calendar. The judge dismissed the case against Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides.

A preliminary hearing last week revealed procedural issues that contributed to the dismissal. Faruqui criticized prosecutors for filing an amended complaint overnight to add a charge without first clearing it with the court. He described the maneuver as unorthodox and one he had never seen before. The department had used a criminal complaint rather than seeking a grand jury indictment, a method typically reserved for urgent custody situations.

An FBI agent who worked on the case testified that he was concerned the investigation would be viewed as political. The agent confirmed the probe started hours after Trump's July speech on election security. The original complaint accused Floris and Benavides of misleading lawmakers in 2023 about their knowledge of efforts to investigate a laptop dropped off at a Delaware repair shop in 2019.

The case echoed long standing complaints from Trump and his Republican allies that the FBI suppressed potentially harmful information during the 2020 campaign. The Justice Department's filing referenced a defensive briefing given to lawmakers in 2020. Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin previously argued that briefing was used to link their investigation into the Biden administration to Russian disinformation.

The Justice Department retains the option to pursue a grand jury indictment against the two former officials. Their lawyers had argued for dismissal of the charges. The ruling serves as a setback for the department, which has faced difficulty persuading grand juries in the capital to return indictments in politically charged prosecutions.