By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Monday tossed out a criminal case accusing two former senior FBI officials of lying about their involvement in an investigation of former President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, excoriating the Justice Department for bringing what he said was a political prosecution before Tuesday’s midterm elections.
US Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui threw out the case at a remarkably early stage, finding that prosecutors had not shown sufficient evidence that the two officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, both former high-ranking FBI counterintelligence officials, had knowingly made false statements.
“What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization” of federal law enforcement, Faruqui said during a court hearing.
The decision deals another blow to the Justice Department’s attempts to investigate people President Donald Trump views as adversaries. It came after a hearing in Washington federal court last week delved into how Trump has exerted control over the DOJ during his second term.
Faruqui, in handing down his decision, assailed the Justice Department for what he described as a rushed investigation that made “critical mistakes” and departed from normal procedures. He suggested that high-ranking officials sought to charge the case last month to influence the midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress.
“I will not bury my head in the sand and pretend I cannot read a calendar,” Faruqui said in court. “I will not lobotomize myself that way.”
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling. Prosecutors can seek to revive the case by securing an indictment, but will need approval from a grand jury. Grand juries have declined to approve several high-profile cases during Trump’s second term.
Floris broke down in tears and hugged her lawyers and other former high-ranking FBI officials who attended the hearing in support. Kimberly Paschall, a lawyer for Benavides, called the case “an indictment on this current department.”
“This so-called prosecution was nothing more than a politically-motivated smear campaign aimed at scoring political points before the midterm elections,” Floris’ legal team said in a statement following the hearing.
Floris and Benavides were accused of lying during 2023 testimony before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee about their knowledge of and involvement in probes involving Hunter Biden and material from his personal laptop that surfaced ahead of the 2020 election.
Floris and Benavides both helped supervise an FBI Foreign Influence Task Force that aimed to limit attempts by countries like Russia and China to sway US elections. A criminal complaint said they falsely denied or downplayed their role in certain events involving Hunter Biden, citing internal FBI records and witness interviews.
Faruqui found that some of their statements were not actually false and others could be attributed to “honest mistakes of memory.”
An FBI agent testified last week that the probe into Floris and Benavides began with Trump’s primetime address in July on election security, during which he announced the FBI would investigate whether US intelligence agencies had suppressed information about Chinese meddling in the 2020 election.
The next day, FBI Director Kash Patel tasked the bureau’s Kansas City Field Office with scrutinizing Floris, who had cast doubt on an FBI intelligence report claiming that China sought to interfere in the 2020 election to boost Joe Biden over Trump.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward, editing by Bhargav Acharya, Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Berkrot)
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