The U.S. Justice Department on Oct. 23 announced the arrest of two former FBI officials for allegedly lying to Congress about their knowledge of investigations into former President Joe Biden's son, Hunter.
Nikki Floris, 46, and Bradley Benavides, 56, are accused of misleading a House panel about the role of the FBI's since-dissolved Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) probing Hunter Biden during the 2020 election, federal officials said.
Floris, of Alexandria, Virginia, and Benavides, of Aiken, South Carolina, were each charged with a single count of making false statements stemming from testimony before lawmakers in 2023, according to a criminal complaint released Friday.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, in a post on
X, said Floris and Benavides surrendered on arrest warrants earlier in the day. The defendants, who both previously held senior roles in the FBI's counterintelligence division, were charged in federal court in Washington, D.C.
"Lying to Congress by anyone strikes at the heart of our democratic system, but when senior FBI agents lie to Congress believing they are above the law, it’s time to bring the hammer of justice down on them," Pirro said. "When senior officials entrusted with safeguarding our nation’s security choose deception over duty, they undermine the very institutions they swore to uphold."
The Foreign Influence Task Force, created in 2017 to combat covert foreign malign influence and election interference, was officially disbanded by former Attorney General Pam Bondi last year.
Floris led the FITF as a deputy assistant director from 2019 through 2022, according to FBI Director Kash Patel, and Benavides served as the task force's section chief from 2019 through the 2020 election.
According to the 27-page court filing, on July 19, 2023, and on Sept. 28, 2023, the pair "knowingly and willfully provided materially false information about their awareness of and involvement" in the FBI’s investigations into the former president's 56-year-old son.
"Both testified that the FITF was not involved in the Hunter Biden investigations," Patel said in a post on X. "Lying to Congress by senior FBI officials strikes at the heart of our system. No one is above the law."
"Documentary evidence, contemporaneous communications, and witness accounts" contradict their congressional testimony," according to a news release from Pirro's office.
"Evidence shows that Floris discussed the FBI’s investigations into Hunter Biden routinely for more than a year both within the FITF and with others in the FBI," the release continues.
Lawyers for Floris said the charges were based on the "say-so of politicians, not on the facts."
"The government’s reasons for charging Nikki are as transparent as they are unjust: to push a false narrative for a shot at political points," Floris' lawyers said in a statement to Reuters.
A lawyer for Benavides could not immediately be reached by USA TODAY for comment.
In unsubstantiated allegations, President Donald Trump continues to publicly assert that the 2020 election was rigged, even as multiple court cases, experts and state audits have concluded that former President Joe Biden beat Trump in the race.
Hunter Biden's laptop controversy
A laptop belonging to Joe Biden's son became the center of controversy after House Republicans used contents from it in their investigation of his father's overseas business deals, USA TODAY previously reported.
The contents, which included foreign business emails and texts, were widely distributed in the lead-up to the 2020 election after Hunter Biden failed to retrieve it from a computer repair shop. The shop owner gave it to the FBI and Rudy Giuliani, Trump's campaign lawyer for the president's first term. Giuliani allegedly spent months reviewing the contents before distributing material to reporters.
Pictures and text messages from Hunter Biden’s electronic devices were used to help convict him on federal gun charges in June, suggesting that he lied on a form about being addicted to drugs.
The former president's son previously alleged that Giuliani tampered with the laptop and unlawfully distributed its contents. Hunter Biden sued the former New York City mayor and his lawyer for allegedly copying, manipulating and distributing the records in a “total annihilation” of his privacy. He later withdrew the lawsuit after lawyers jointly agreed to drop the case.
Contributing: Saman Shafiq with USA TODAY
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-FBI officials charged with lying to Congress about Hunter Biden probe
