DOJ Charges Two Ex-FBI Officials With Lying to Congress
New criminal complaints accuse Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides of obstructing proceedings regarding their roles in the Hunter Biden probe.
By Malik Salazar ·
Federal prosecutors filed new criminal charges on Tuesday morning against two former FBI counterintelligence officials, accusing them of lying to lawmakers and obstructing a congressional proceeding. The superseding complaint targets Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, alleging they provided materially false statements about their involvement in the bureau's investigations of Hunter Biden.
The document was filed early Tuesday, just hours before Floris and Benavides were scheduled to appear in federal court in Washington, D.C., for a preliminary hearing. At that hearing, defense attorneys plan to question government witnesses to test whether the Justice Department has demonstrated probable cause for the new charges. The timing of the filing, hours before a scheduled court date, has drawn attention from legal experts.
The charges stem from testimony the defendants gave to a congressional committee in 2023. Floris testified on July 19, 2023, while Benavides testified on September 28, 2023. The complaint alleges they knowingly and willfully made false statements to minimize their awareness of and participation in the FBI's work on the Hunter Biden case.
The allegations focus on their roles within the Foreign Influence Task Force, or FITF. The complaint specifies that they were involved in a counterintelligence operation called Round River. This operation collected derogatory informant reporting on Hunter Biden and other figures, flagging some of it as Russian disinformation ahead of the 2020 election. Floris served as deputy assistant director of the FITF from mid-2019 through mid-2022. Benavides served as section chief from mid-2019 through the 2020 election.
The decision to file an unsigned and unsworn superseding complaint so close to the midterm elections has raised questions among former prosecutors. Federal guidelines typically urge caution in politically sensitive cases near national elections. Criminal complaints in felony cases are usually reserved for exigent circumstances, such as ongoing threats to public safety.
Floris' legal team issued a statement criticizing the filing process. They described the complaint as an attempt to fix issues with the original charge and add a new one. The lawyers stated that in their combined decades of service at the Justice Department, they had never seen such a filing. They argued that the public lodging of criminal charges usually requires authorization by a grand jury, a judge, or the defendant.
The defense team said the government took that power for itself in a desperate attempt to delay the client's right to challenge the charges. They asked to address what they called outrageous government conduct at the court hearing. The complaint alleges the false statements were made to impede the congressional investigation and conceal the FITF's engagement with the Hunter Biden probes.
