Ex-FBI counterintelligence official Nikki Floris charged with lying to Congress
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The gist
Former FBI official Nikki Floris, 46, and colleague Bradley Benavides, 56, were charged with lying to Congress and surrendered Friday.
The case revives the Hunter Biden laptop saga 10 days before the Nov.
Background
Nikki Floris is a former deputy assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division who joined the bureau as an intelligence analyst in 2005 and served as the FBI's security lead for the 2020 presidential election. Bradley Benavides is a former FBI official and former colleague who focused on election security, foreign influence and Chinese intelligence threats. The charges concern statements the two made to Congress in 2023 about the FBI's Hunter Biden investigations and the role of a specialized foreign-influence task force, after the New York Post publicized contents of Hunter Biden's laptop in 2020. The case is the latest in a series of politically charged investigative actions ahead of the midterms and part of what the material describes as a broader effort by FBI Director Kash Patel to scrutinize past episodes that animated Trump's conservative base.
How it unfolded
- Oct 2020The New York Post publicized contents of Hunter Biden's laptop, which it said it obtained from Trump ally Rudy Giuliani.
- 2023Floris and Benavides testified to Congress; the DOJ says they lied about the involvement of a foreign-influence task force and about their knowledge of the laptop.
- Jul 2026Emails in which Floris discussed intelligence work were declassified by Trump after being obtained by Congress.
- Oct 23, 2026Floris, 46, and Benavides, 56, were charged in a criminal complaint with one count of lying to Congress; both surrendered Friday and appeared in federal court in Washington.
Who’s saying what
- Official
- U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro alleged the two lied about their roles in the Foreign Influence Task Force and the FBI's Hunter Biden investigations, saying evidence showed their involvement in shaping the public narrative about the laptop before the election.
- FBI Director
- Kash Patel said the FBI arrested two former members of the now-dissolved task force who allegedly lied to Congress in 2023, and that lying to Congress by senior FBI officials strikes at the heart of the system.
- Support
- Floris's attorneys called her a patriot who served nearly 20 years as an FBI intelligence officer and said the DOJ accused her falsely on the say-so of politicians, filing charges on the eve of an election.
Still unverified
The case was brought by criminal complaint and the two have not yet been indicted by a federal grand jury in D.C., where the sources say grand jurors have been skeptical of cases brought during Trump's second term.