By — Eric Tucker, Associated Press Eric Tucker, Associated Press By — Alanna Durkin Richer, Associated Press Alanna Durkin Richer, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/2-ex-fbi-officials-charged-with-making-false-statements-about-hunter-bidens-laptop Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter 2 ex-FBI officials charged with making false statements about Hunter Biden's laptop Politics Oct 23, 2026 11:19 AM EDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Two former FBI intelligence officials who specialized in foreign election interference were charged Friday with making false statements about their roles in investigating the origins of Hunter Biden's laptop in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides surrendered Friday and made their first appearance in federal court in Washington. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. Enter your email address Subscribe Form error message goes here. Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm. "Nikki Floris is a patriot. She served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years. Yet today, the DOJ has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts," her attorneys said in a statement. "It's no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election." The case was filed 10 days before the Nov. 3 elections and marks the latest in a series of splashy and politically charged investigative actions the Department of Justice has undertaken in the run-up to the midterm contests. The prosecution, a rare Department of Justice criminal case against a former employee, revisits a tangled and peculiar saga that roiled the final weeks of the 2020 race. It also comes amid a broader, backward-looking effort by FBI Director Kash Patel, who before taking over the nation's premier law enforcement agency was a harsh critic of it, to scrutinize high-profile episodes from the bureau's recent past that for years have animated President Donald Trump's conservative base. READ MORE: Takeaways from Hunter Biden's deposition with Republican lawmakers The revelation of the laptop's existence in October 2020 injected a thorny storyline in the race between Trump, the Republican incumbent, and Hunter Biden's father, Joe Biden, Trump's Democratic challenger, who went on to win the race. The laptop's contents were publicized by the New York Post, which said it had obtained from Trump ally Rudy Giuliani a hard drive of a computer dropped off by Hunter Biden at a Wilmington, Delaware, repair shop. The laptop contained emails that appeared to show discussions of the younger Biden's foreign business dealings. The peculiar circumstances of the laptop's discovery raised concerns among Democrats and former intelligence officials about the possibility of Russian disinformation, particularly when the Trump administration's own intelligence community was assessing that Russia was attempting to interfere on Trump's behalf in the election and as Giuliani had traveled abroad looking for dirt on the Bidens. A free press is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy. Support trusted journalism and civil dialogue. Donate now By — Eric Tucker, Associated Press Eric Tucker, Associated Press By — Alanna Durkin Richer, Associated Press Alanna Durkin Richer, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two former FBI intelligence officials who specialized in foreign election interference were charged Friday with making false statements about their roles in investigating the origins of Hunter Biden's laptop in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides surrendered Friday and made their first appearance in federal court in Washington. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. Enter your email address Subscribe Form error message goes here. Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm. "Nikki Floris is a patriot. She served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years. Yet today, the DOJ has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts," her attorneys said in a statement. "It's no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election." The case was filed 10 days before the Nov. 3 elections and marks the latest in a series of splashy and politically charged investigative actions the Department of Justice has undertaken in the run-up to the midterm contests. The prosecution, a rare Department of Justice criminal case against a former employee, revisits a tangled and peculiar saga that roiled the final weeks of the 2020 race. It also comes amid a broader, backward-looking effort by FBI Director Kash Patel, who before taking over the nation's premier law enforcement agency was a harsh critic of it, to scrutinize high-profile episodes from the bureau's recent past that for years have animated President Donald Trump's conservative base. READ MORE: Takeaways from Hunter Biden's deposition with Republican lawmakers The revelation of the laptop's existence in October 2020 injected a thorny storyline in the race between Trump, the Republican incumbent, and Hunter Biden's father, Joe Biden, Trump's Democratic challenger, who went on to win the race. The laptop's contents were publicized by the New York Post, which said it had obtained from Trump ally Rudy Giuliani a hard drive of a computer dropped off by Hunter Biden at a Wilmington, Delaware, repair shop. The laptop contained emails that appeared to show discussions of the younger Biden's foreign business dealings. The peculiar circumstances of the laptop's discovery raised concerns among Democrats and former intelligence officials about the possibility of Russian disinformation, particularly when the Trump administration's own intelligence community was assessing that Russia was attempting to interfere on Trump's behalf in the election and as Giuliani had traveled abroad looking for dirt on the Bidens. A free press is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy. Support trusted journalism and civil dialogue. Donate now