Ex-FBI Leader Seen Crying Outside Federal Courtroom as Walls Close In on Hunter Biden Laptop Coverup
Nikki Floris, one of two disgraced former senior FBI officials arrested last week for allegedly lying to Congress about Hunter Biden’s laptop, reportedly broke down in tears outside a federal courtroom Tuesday.
“Floris was seen weeping in a courthouse hallway during a break in the probable cause hearing in the district court for Washington, D.C.,” the New York Post reported.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced last week on social media that Floris and fellow former FBI official Bradley Benavides were arrested for “allegedly lying to Congress about their involvement in the FBI’s investigations into Hunter Biden,” the eldest son of former President Joe Biden.
Floris had served as the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s now-defunct Foreign Influence Task Force, while Benavides had served as FITF’s section chief.
Two former senior FBI officials, Nikki Cole Floris and Bradley Benavides, were taken into custody today on charges of allegedly lying to Congress about their involvement in the FBI’s investigations into Hunter Biden.
The charges stem from an ongoing investigation into the since-dissolved FBI Foreign Influence Task Force…
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) October 23, 2026
Presided over by U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui, Tuesday’s hearing in D.C. was designed to determine whether the Department of Justice had enough evidence to justify the case moving forward, as reported by the New York Post.
While Faruqui did not make a final ruling in the matter on Tuesday, he did strike a superseding complaint that was filed overnight by the Justice Department.
According to ABC News, federal prosecutors tried to add a charge of obstruction to the case in the overnight filing without seeking approval from the judge. The FBI agent who submitted the complaint also did not include his signature.
“I think they should have filed nothing,” Faruqui responded in court, as reported by ABC News. “They never had complaints filed on their record that are unsigned, waiting for a judge to make a probable cause finding.”
“I think that it is inappropriate and harms the defendant,” he continued. “I’m frustrated that I got it in the middle of the night, but I’m much more concerned that it’s filed on the public record.”
Faruqui was accused of left-wing bias this spring after he treated the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter with kid gloves:
Meet DC Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui.
He apologized to Cole Allen for how the failed assassin is being treated in jail.
This is not parody.
The judiciary is a problem. https://t.co/9oAwsX5QZE
— C3 (@C_3C_3) May 4, 2026
During Tuesday’s hearing, Faruqui also accused Assistant U.S. Attorney John Borchert of trying to change the way things are done in court.
“Why today on this one case have you changed the entire history of how you charge cases?” he asked the attorney, according to ABC News. “What is it?”
“It appears that — it makes it look like the United States is afraid of me trying to find probable cause,” he added.
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Borchert reportedly denied the allegation, saying, “We are not afraid of a probable cause finding.”
Floris, the defendant who cried outside the courtroom, once admitted to having effectively run a “shadow government” within the first Trump administration.
She’s “on record privately claiming to be ‘running a shadow government’ during the 2020 election,” Patel said on X.
As previously reported, Floris and Benavides allegedly lied to Congress in 2023 by claiming they knew nothing about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
However, an affidavit filed in federal court said that the pair discussed the laptop in “briefings, emails, instant messages, and meetings” multiple times before the 2020 presidential election, the New York Post reported.
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