WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a new charge against two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress, ruling that the Justice Department took new — and inappropriate — steps to announce the allegation.
Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui said during a hearing that prosecutors created “their own category of charges” with the new complaint they attempted to bring against Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, who were initially charged last week with making false statements to Congress about their level of knowledge of an investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Government lawyers added an obstruction charge to a criminal complaint that was filed overnight but not signed by any law enforcement officer or judge. Prosecutor John Borchert of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., acknowledged in court Tuesday that “this has never been done before” but suggested the complaint could be signed at the hearing.
Faruqui denied the request and dismissed the new complaint, questioning why the Justice Department had not followed what it had done in “every other case in the history of this district.”
He said that while he does not doubt that the prosecution acted in good faith, he is concerned that “this system is being misused by people at higher levels.”
“It’s all a show on top of a show” in this case, Faruqui said.
Mary Dohrmann, Floris’ attorney, said there was growing evidence that this was a “political football,” not a matter of “law or fact.”
That came before an FBI agent who investigated the case against Floris and Benavides testified Tuesday that he was concerned it would be seen as “political.”
Flores and Benavides have been targets of harsh criticism from President Donald Trump’s allies. Both were involved in election security issues surrounding the 2020 contest, which Trump falsely claims was rigged. After their arrest last week, Trump said: “I heard they were bad people. »
Floris’ legal team said the case was intended to “score political points” and in a statement released Tuesday called the latest filing “outrageous government conduct toward a decorated public servant.”
“In the middle of the night, the government filed an unsigned, unsworn complaint in an attempt to resolve issues with the original accusation against Ms. Floris and to add a new accusation just as baseless as the first. In our combined decades of service at the Department of Justice, we have never seen or even heard of anything like this,” her lawyers said.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, ignored reporters’ questions about the new complaint before the judge dismissed it.
“It’s up to Judge Faruqui whether or not he wants to sign this. Look, we have a prior complaint that was signed by another magistrate, or another judge, I should say. We have the opportunity today to add a charge. If the judge doesn’t want to add the charge, that’s up to the judge,” Pirro said.
After Faruqui dismissed the new complaint, the initial hearing continued, with FBI Special Agent Bryan Witt testifying that the bureau’s investigation began after FBI Director Kash Patel sent a letter ordering the Kansas City, Missouri, office to investigate certain individuals, including Floris.
Witt said he felt the task was a “huge distraction” from a major public corruption case he was involved in at the time, adding: “I was concerned that it would be seen as political.”
Witt said the investigation was a “priority” and that they had been “asked to pursue it aggressively.” When asked who was pushing him, he mentioned that there had been recordings of high-level officials, including Patel and an FBI deputy director. When asked if Patel had pressed him, he said no.
The hearing is expected to continue on Wednesday.
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