WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday dismissed a criminal complaint against two former FBI officials accused of falsely downplaying their knowledge of a laptop the U.S. Justice Department says belonged to Hunter Biden. The decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui followed a dramatic hearing in which he scolded prosecutors for their unorthodox manoeuvres and an FBI agent who worked the case testified that he had been concerned the investigation would be seen as “political.” The Justice Department may still have an opportunity to pursue a grand jury indictment against the two former officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, whose lawyers had pressed for dismissal of the charges. But the judge’s ruling nonetheless represents an unmistakable setback for the Justice Department, particularly given the difficulty it has had in persuading grand juries in the nation’s capital to return indictments in politically charged prosecutions like this one. The judge’s concerns about the case were apparent almost immediately, when he raised questions about why the Justice Department had charged the case through a criminal complaint — which is more typically done when investigators have a pressing need to take a defendant into custody — as opposed to an indictment that requires a grand jury’s approval. Then, at a preliminary hearing last week, he criticized the Justice Department for filing overnight an amended complaint with an additional criminal charge straight to the docket instead of first clearing the new charge with the court — something he said he had never seen before. The hearing also featured testimony from an FBI agent who worked the case, who said that the investigation had been opened hours after U.S. President Donald Trump gave an election security speech last July and that it had been mandated by FBI Director Kash Patel, who kept close watch on it. The case accused the two former FBI officials of misleading Congress in 2023 about their involvement in, and knowledge of, efforts to investigate a laptop the Justice Department says was dropped off by Hunter Biden, former president Joe Biden’s son, at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019. But it also sought to echo longstanding grievances by Trump and his Republican allies that the FBI attempted to suppress information during the 2020 presidential campaign that was seen as potentially harmful to the Biden family. Candidate Joe Biden, a Democrat, ultimately defeated Trump, the Republican incumbent, in the 2020 election. The Justice Department’s case noted, for instance, how Floris and Benavides had given lawmakers in 2020 a “defensive briefing” that Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin have said was used to undermine their investigation into the Biden administration and link it to Russian disinformation. Eric Tucker, The Associated Press
