A federal judge dismissed criminal charges against two former FBI officials who were accused of lying about their involvement in the investigation into Hunter Biden, the son of former president Joe Biden, on Monday.
Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said prosecutors failed to show probable cause that the two former officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, had knowingly made false statements.
Faruqui also suggested prosecutors purposefully brought the charges at a sensitive time, just ۱۰ days before the midterm elections.
“What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization,” Faruqui said during the court hearing. “I will not bury my head in the sand and pretend I cannot read a calendar.”
The judge criticized federal prosecutors for rushing the prosecution and making “critical mistakes”. Faruqui said that some of the former officials’ statements were not actually false and others could be attributed to “honest mistakes of memory”.
Federal prosecutors in Washington DC charged Floris and Benavides last month with making false statements to members of Congress in ۲۰۲۳ while testifying to the House judiciary committee.
The two former officials were testifying about the bureau’s role in investigating the contents of a laptop that belonged to Hunter Biden.
Floris and Benavides served on an FBI taskforce that examined potential foreign influence in American politics. The taskforce was initially formed after the ۲۰۱۶ presidential election when officials raised concerns that Russia attempted to interfere with the election.
The FBI taskforce had raised concerns in the lead-up to the ۲۰۲۰ presidential election that Russia could have engaged in another disinformation operation to assist Donald Trump’s campaign by bolstering claims about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Last week, an FBI agent testified last week that the probe into Floris and Benavides began with the president’s primetime address in July on election security, during which he announced the FBI would investigate whether US intelligence agencies had suppressed information about Chinese meddling in the ۲۰۲۰ election.
The next day, the FBI director, Kash Patel, tasked the bureau’s Kansas City field office with scrutinizing Floris, who had cast doubt on an FBI intelligence report claiming that China sought to interfere in the ۲۰۲۰ election to boost Joe Biden over Trump.
Trump has publicly criticized individuals that he believes undermined his efforts to overturn the ۲۰۲۰ presidential results.
But since returning to office in January ۲۰۲۵, the justice department has targeted people that Trump views as enemies through indictments and complaints. However, some high-profile attempts have failed to bear fruit.
While the justice department’s complaint against Floris and Benavides has been dismissed, prosecutors could try to charge them again by asking a grand jury to review evidence and approve charges.
