Washington Litigation: Judge Dismisses Hunter Biden Case Over 'Weaponization'

A federal magistrate judge in Washington threw out criminal charges against two former FBI officials on Monday. The ruling ends the current prosecution of Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, who were accused of lying to Congress about their role in investigating Hunter Biden. Judge Zia Faruqui called the investigation a clear example of 'weaponization' in a written decision read from the bench.

Faruqui pointed to specific timeline issues in his ruling. The investigation began one day after President Donald Trump delivered a primetime speech in July discussing his loss in the 2020 election. The Justice Department filed the complaint only two weeks before the midterm elections on Tuesday. The case involved statements the two officials made in 2023, yet prosecutors waited until late 2026 to bring the charges.

The judge criticized the Justice Department for using a criminal complaint rather than a grand jury indictment. He noted that complaints are typically reserved for urgent custody situations. During a preliminary hearing last week, Faruqui also rebuked prosecutors for filing an amended complaint overnight. He said he had never seen a new charge added to the docket without first clearing it with the court. An FBI agent who worked the case testified that he worried the probe would be viewed as political.

Faruqui stated that he would not ignore the calendar while making his decision. He acknowledged that the Justice Department could still seek a grand jury indictment for Floris and Benavides. However, the dismissal is a major setback for the department. The agency has struggled to get grand juries in the capital to return indictments in high-profile, politically sensitive cases.

The original charges alleged that Floris and Benavides misled lawmakers in 2023. They were questioned about their knowledge of efforts to investigate a laptop associated with Hunter Biden. The Justice Department said the laptop was dropped off at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019. The case also referenced a 'defensive briefing' given to lawmakers in 2020. Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson claimed that briefing was used to link the Biden administration's investigation to Russian disinformation.