A federal judge refused on Tuesday to approve a new criminal complaint against two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about the Hunter Biden investigations, sharply criticizing prosecutors for filing it without first securing judicial approval.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui challenged prosecutors from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s Washington office over their overnight effort to expand the case against Nikki Floris, the former head of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, and Bradley Benavides, the task force’s former section chief.
Deputy Assistant Director for Counterterrorism at the FBI Nikki Floris, left, sitting next to Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security Adam Hickey, right, testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019, on election security. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
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Deputy Assistant Director for Counterterrorism at the FBI Nikki Floris, left, sitting next to Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security Adam Hickey, right, testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019, on election security. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The pair were arrested Friday on charges of making false statements to Congress under 18 U.S.C. § 1001. The new filing, styled as a “superseding criminal complaint,” sought to add obstruction and attempted obstruction of a congressional proceeding under 18 U.S.C. § 1505.
“I am not going to bless it as a superseding complaint,” Faruqui said.
The filing included a signature block bearing Faruqui’s typed name but lacked his signature. The judge said prosecutors needed a judicial finding of probable cause before proceeding, rather than submitting the document overnight and expecting his approval.
“I’m concerned with your view as to what the law is,” Faruqui told prosecutors. “Why today, on this one case, have you changed the entire history of how you charge cases?”
A court notice appeared on the public docket Tuesday, explaining that federal prosecutors had filed the paperwork incorrectly and needed to have it processed and sworn before it could be placed on the public docket. Government attorneys acknowledged the error during in-person statements to the judge on Tuesday.
Floris and Benavides are accused of knowingly making false statements to the House Judiciary Committee in 2023 about FBI activities related to investigations of former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Both were released following their arrests and deny wrongdoing.
Prosecutors allege the pair sought to minimize or conceal the FBI Foreign Influence Task Force’s engagement with the Hunter Biden investigations and impede congressional scrutiny.
Floris led the Foreign Influence Task Force from mid-2019 through mid-2022, while Benavides served as its section chief through the 2020 election. According to the original charging documents, both approved an internal project known as “Round River,” which collected derogatory informant reporting about Hunter Biden and examined whether it could be labeled Russian disinformation.
Prosecutors cited internal communications showing the pair discussed the laptop after the New York Post published its October 2020 report on it. Benavides proposed language for the FBI director’s talking points saying the bureau had not determined whether the story was part of a Russian disinformation effort. Floris reviewed the language and replied, “Looks good!” Prosecutors contend those exchanges and other evidence contradict their subsequent statements to Congress distancing themselves from the Hunter Biden investigations.
The charging documents also cite an Oct. 15, 2020, NBC inquiry that Floris forwarded to FBI leadership and Benavides, asking whether she could confirm that the bureau possessed Hunter Biden’s laptop. Floris previously drew scrutiny over a separate internal message in which she said she was “basically running a shadow government across the FBI.”
Floris’s attorneys moved Tuesday to strike the new filing, calling it unsigned, unsworn, and unapproved by any judicial officer.
They accused prosecutors of attempting to repair deficiencies in the original complaint, replace the officer attesting to its allegations, and add another charge hours before a scheduled preliminary hearing.
“It represents a serious abuse of the criminal charging process,” the defense motion said.
FORMER FBI OFFICIALS CHARGED WITH LYING TO CONGRESS ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN INVESTIGATIONS
The defense attorneys argued that prosecutors filed the document at 12:20 a.m. to disrupt the hearing and avoid testing whether the original allegations established probable cause.
Faruqui’s refusal to approve the proposed complaint did not, by itself, resolve the original false-statements charges against either defendant.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
