FBI charges tied to Hunter Biden laptop
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The gist
Former FBI officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides surrendered in Washington on charges of making false statements to Congress in 2023.
The case was filed 10 days before the Nov.
Background
Nikki Floris, 46, led the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF, a unit tracking foreign efforts to influence U.S. politics) as deputy assistant director from mid-2019 through mid-2022; Bradley Benavides, 56, was its section chief from mid-2019 through the 2020 election. The laptop at the center of the case is one Hunter Biden, son of then-candidate Joe Biden, left at a Delaware repair shop in 2019; the FBI acquired it that December, and in October 2020 the New York Post published emails it said came from a hard-drive copy provided by Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for then-President Donald Trump. The laptop became a political flashpoint in the final weeks of the 2020 race, and Republicans have long accused the FBI of mishandling the laptop and the investigations into Hunter Biden. FBI Director Kash Patel has described the charges as part of a broader, backward-looking effort to scrutinize high-profile episodes from the bureau's recent past.
How it unfolded
- 2019Hunter Biden, son of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, left a MacBook at a Delaware computer repair shop, according to the shop owner.
- Dec 9, 2019The FBI acquired Hunter Biden's laptop, which was the subject of tax and money-laundering investigations, according to an affidavit.
- Oct 14, 2020The New York Post published emails it said came from a hard-drive copy provided by Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for then-President Donald Trump, including correspondence on Hunter Biden's Ukraine business dealings and his Burisma board position.
- 2023Floris and Benavides testified before the House Judiciary Committee that the Foreign Influence Task Force was not involved in the FBI's Hunter Biden investigations.
- Dec 2024President Joe Biden signed a full and unconditional pardon for his son shortly before leaving the White House.
- 2025The Trump administration disbanded the Foreign Influence Task Force.
- Oct 23, 2026Floris and Benavides surrendered and made their first appearance in federal court in Washington before Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui, each facing one count of making materially false statements to Congress in 2023; the case was filed 10 days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Who’s saying what
- Official
- FBI Director Kash Patel said documentary evidence, contemporaneous communications and witness accounts contradict the pair's testimony that the task force was not involved, and that lying to Congress by senior FBI officials strikes at the heart of the system.
- Prosecutors
- U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said the two allegedly lied about their roles in the Hunter Biden investigations, with one claiming they only learned about it from Wikipedia despite evidence of involvement in shaping the public narrative before the election.
- Defense
- Floris's attorneys called her a patriot and said the DOJ accused her falsely on the say-so of politicians, arguing it is no coincidence the charges came years later on the eve of an election; lawyers for both deny wrongdoing and call the charges politically motivated.
- Expert
- Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui noted both defendants have sparkling backgrounds in federal law enforcement and that charging them by criminal complaint for conduct that is quite old is unusual.
Still unverified
The two were charged in a criminal complaint but have not been indicted by a grand jury. Kash Patel also referred to an allegation that Floris privately described herself as running a shadow government during the 2020 election.