Two Former FBI Foreign Influence Officials Charged With Lying to Congress About Hunter Biden Probe
Photo: Eric Lee / Stringer / Getty
Two former senior FBI officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, have been charged with making false statements to Congress about what they did in matters connected to the Hunter Biden investigation. Both once served on the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force. According to the criminal complaints, each faces one count of making false statements.
Floris has been in the news before. Critics have accused her of describing a “shadow government” working against President Donald Trump, in connection with claims that China was involved in efforts to steal the 2020 election.
The charges are based on what the two said in transcribed interviews with Congress. Floris and Benavides said the Foreign Influence Task Force had essentially no involvement in, and no discussions about, Hunter Biden, his laptop or the investigations tied to him. They said the same about the September 2020 Senate report by Sens. Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley on the Biden family’s foreign dealings.
An affidavit filed with the charges says those statements were false. It points to documents, emails, instant messages and meeting records, along with later witness interviews, including interviews with FBI personnel in October 2026. It argues that this evidence contradicts their testimony and shows the statements were meant to hide the task force’s role and obstruct the congressional inquiry.
The FBI’s Baltimore Field Office had been investigating Hunter Biden for tax and money-laundering offenses since late 2019. Investigators got the contents of his laptop on December 9, 2019.
On the day the New York Post published its laptop story, Floris and Benavides helped handle the FBI’s internal and congressional responses. They fielded emails and questions about whether the bureau had the device and helped coordinate talking points. Benavides messaged the Baltimore assistant special agent in charge for details on the property receipt dates of December 3 and December 9, 2019. He also met with Criminal Division staff about the matter. Floris coordinated responses and forwarded related materials.
According to the allegations, one of the two said they had learned about the investigation into the former president’s son from Wikipedia. The affidavit says that account doesn’t match the evidence of their part in shaping the public narrative about the laptop in the weeks before the election.
Floris drew attention separately for a remark in which she described the FBI as “basically running a shadow government.” That comment was about allegations that China was making fraudulent driver’s licenses as part of a mail-in ballot scheme.
The case is about whether the officials told the truth about what they knew and did. It doesn’t address the merits of the Hunter Biden investigations themselves.
Both are accused of hiding from Congress how much the Foreign Influence Task Force knew about these matters and how involved it was. The court filing is publicly available.
