Trump DOJ charges ex-FBI officials who briefed Congress on Hunter Biden laptop

Donald Trump’s administration has accused two former FBI officials of lying to Congress about the bureau’s involvement with investigations into Hunter Biden, accusations that lawyers are calling “nonsense.”

Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, two former top intelligence specialists, are charged with one count each of making false statements to Congress. They made their first appearance in front of Washington, D.C. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui on Friday morning.

The charges, announced by FBI Director Kash Patel, follow a months-long campaign from the president and his allies who have alleged a so-called “deep state” plot to suppress allegations of corruption involving former President Joe Biden and his family.

“Nikki Floris is a patriot. She served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years,” lawyers for Floris said in a statement shared with The Independent on Friday.

“Yet today, the DOJ has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts,” they added. “It’s no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election.”

The government’s reasoning for bringing the case now is “as transparent as they are unjust: to push a false narrative for a shot at political points,” her lawyers added.

The charges stem from an investigation into the now-defunct FBI Foreign Influence Task Force, which sought to prevent foreign actors from unlawfully influencing 2020 elections.

Floris and Benavides had testified that the unit was not involved with investigations into Hunter Biden, but “documentary evidence, contemporaneous communications, and witness accounts contradict their testimony,” according to Patel.

According to the Justice Department’s court filings, “Hunter Biden was a recurring subject” at the unit’s briefings and in “emails, instant messages, and meetings, including internal discussion of whether information about him was Russian disinformation.”

“Lying to Congress by senior FBI officials strikes at the heart of our system. No one is above the law,” Patel said.

This is a developing story