Breaking: Judge Dismisses Charges Against FBI Agents Accused of Lying About Hunter Biden Laptop
A Washington, D.C., magistrate judge who’s previously been accused of harboring liberal bias has dismissed charges against two former senior FBI officials who were accused of lying to Congress about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui issued the dismissal Monday morning on the grounds that the investigation behind the charges was rushed, political, and full of “critical mistakes,” according to the Associated Press.
“What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization,” Faruqui said of the case against former FBI officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides.
Floris served as the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s now-defunct Foreign Influence Task Force, while Benavides served as the FITF’s section chief. In her role in the FITF, Floris famously admitted to “running a shadow government.”
🚨 BREAKING: Obama-appointed Judge Zia Faruqui DISMISSES criminal complaint against former FBI officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, accused of lying to Congress about Hunter Biden’s laptop. https://t.co/wkc4wPGvHZ
— Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) November 2, 2026
Faruqui also seemed to suggest that President Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel had improperly influenced the investigation.
He reportedly complained in his ruling that the investigation was launched a day after the president delivered a primetime speech in which he warned of potential cheating in the election system.
He also said that Patel had ordered the FBI investigation and closely tracked it. Faruqui further made an issue of the Justice Department’s waiting so long to file the case.
“I will not bury my head in the sand and pretend that I cannot read a calendar,” he said in court, according to the Associated Press.
Patel announced on social media last month that Floris and Benavides had been 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.
The two were specifically accused of using the FITF to suppress legitimate, factual reporting on Biden’s infamous laptop.
The two were also accused of lying to Congress in 2023 by claiming they knew nothing about the laptop.
However, an affidavit filed in federal court revealed 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.
The outlet, which reviewed the affidavit against them, added that they falsely dismissed the laptop story as Russian disinformation.
Responding to Faruqui’s decision to drop the charges against the pair, investigative reporter Julie Kelly published a post to the social media site X on Monday accusing the judge of being “corrupt.”
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“He signed hundreds of J6 arrest warrants including on the unlawful 1512c2 charge,” she wrote. “He refused to release Couy Griffin, accused of 2 misdemeanors, from custody.”
“Last year, he actually apologized to a guy accused of pointing lasers at Secret Service agents and the president’s helicopter after he was charged,” she added.
Zia Faruqui— and my longtime followers are familiar with his name—is a magistrate judge. Not appointed by the president, not confirmed by the Senate.
He signed hundreds of J6 arrest warrants including on the unlawful 1512c2 charge. He refused to release Couy Griffin, accused of 2 misdemeanors, from custody…
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) November 2, 2026
According to The New York Times, Judge Faruqui also apologized to Floris and Benavides during Monday’s contentious hearing.
“He apologized directly to Ms. Floris and Mr. Benavides for having been ‘dragged through the process’ of being charged by the same federal government they had admirably served for decades,” the paper reported.
Faruqui has also been accused of treating the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter with kid gloves.
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