Judge Rebukes Prosecutors in Case Against Former FBI Officials Tied to Hunter Biden Laptop
Written by Kiss Media on 28 October 2026
A federal judge on Tuesday sharply criticized the Justice Department’s handling of a criminal case against two former FBI officials accused of misleading Congress about what they knew regarding a laptop the department says belonged to Hunter Biden.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui rejected an amended complaint prosecutors filed overnight that added an obstruction charge against former officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides. Faruqui said the filing was improper because charging documents require a judge’s sign-off that probable cause exists — and this one had none.
“It is not our court’s practice — and I think it is appropriately not our practice — that unsigned complaints are filed on the docket,” Faruqui said, pressing prosecutors on why they departed from standard procedure in this case.
The original case, announced Friday, accuses Floris and Benavides of falsely minimizing their knowledge of the laptop, which investigators say Hunter Biden left at a computer repair shop in 2019. That case remains intact, and Faruqui moved forward Tuesday with a preliminary hearing.
During the hearing, an FBI agent who worked the investigation acknowledged under questioning that the probe began after a July speech by President Donald Trump on election interference and was directed by FBI Director Kash Patel. The agent described the assignment as a “huge distraction” and said he had worried the case could appear political.
Source: WDEL — https://www.wdel.com/news/hunter-biden-laptop-issue-resurfaces-as-judge-scolds-prosecutors-over-case-against-ex-fbi-officials/article_42db2829-75c8-5076-b023-5552c8509c4d.html
