Former FBI agents face court over Hunter Biden laptop testimony

The Justice Department has moved forward with criminal charges against two former federal agents who led a specialized unit within the FBI. The case has drawn attention as a politically charged action taken just days before the midterm elections next week.

Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides are accused of lying to members of Congress in 2023. Prosecutors claim the officials denied having contemporaneous knowledge of a laptop that Hunter Biden allegedly left at a computer repair shop in Delaware in 2019. The department asserts the agents also participated in internal conversations about the device, a fact they allegedly omitted from their testimony before lawmakers.

The pair headed the Foreign Influence Task Force, a group created during the first Trump administration to monitor influence campaigns from Russia and other nations. In August 2020, Floris and Benavides briefed Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson. The senators were conducting an investigation into Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine at the time. News of the meeting leaked, leading the senators to argue that the FBI had tried to link their oversight to Russian disinformation efforts.

The laptop itself became a central issue during the final weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign. The New York Post reported it had obtained a hard drive from Rudy Giuliani, a close ally of President Donald Trump. The publication cited emails that appeared to document Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. Democrats and former intelligence officials raised concerns about Russian involvement, particularly after the administration’s intelligence community assessed that Moscow sought to undermine Joe Biden’s candidacy. John Ratcliffe, the then-national intelligence director, stated there were no signs of Russian actors involved. The FBI later investigated the younger Biden on gun and tax charges, resulting in felony convictions. President Biden pardoned his son in late 2024.

Defense attorneys are expected to challenge the legal basis of the case at a preliminary hearing Tuesday in federal court in Washington. They plan to point out that the charges were brought via a criminal complaint signed by a magistrate judge rather than an indictment voted on by a grand jury. This procedural choice is notable because the Justice Department has faced difficulty securing grand jury indictments for high-profile cases in the capital. The lawyers have described the prosecution as baseless and politically motivated.

The case represents a rare instance of the Justice Department pursuing criminal charges against former employees. The Foreign Influence Task Force was disbanded in February 2025 by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. Congressional Republicans had long criticized the unit for attempting to discredit their investigations into the Biden family. Floris and Benavides are due in court Tuesday to address the charges.

The prosecution marks the latest in a series of investigative actions by the Justice Department in the run-up to the elections. The agents are accused of playing down their involvement in the laptop matter while testifying before Congress. Their legal team has denied all allegations of wrongdoing. The hearing will determine if the case proceeds to trial.