Florist and Benavides face preliminary hearing

Two former federal agents return to court in Washington on Tuesday to answer charges that they misled Congress regarding their role in a 2019 laptop investigation. The prosecution of Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides marks a distinct shift in Justice Department strategy as the midterm elections near next week. Defense attorneys have labeled the case baseless and driven by political motives rather than legal merit.

The criminal complaint alleges that Floris and Benavides minimized their awareness of a laptop the department says Hunter Biden left at a computer repair shop in 2019. The case targets the former leaders of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, a unit established during the first Trump administration to monitor foreign efforts to sow discord. Congressional Republicans previously argued that the task force attempted to discredit their own inquiries into the Biden family.

Defense lawyers plan to contest the procedural basis of the charges during the preliminary hearing. They will point out that a magistrate judge signed the criminal complaint rather than a grand jury voting on an indictment. The Justice Department has faced difficulty securing grand jury indictments in high-profile cases within the District of Columbia, leading to this alternative charging method.

The legal dispute revisits the timeline that began when The New York Post reported finding a hard drive from the laptop. The Post stated it received the drive from Rudy Giuliani, an ally of President Donald Trump. The report included emails suggesting foreign business dealings by Hunter Biden. The discovery of the device raised questions among Democrats and intelligence officials about potential Russian involvement, especially after the Trump administration’s intelligence community assessed that Moscow sought to undermine Joe Biden’s 2020 candidacy.

John Ratcliffe, who served as national intelligence director at the time, addressed those concerns by stating there was no evidence linking the laptop to Russian actors. The FBI supported that position and subsequently investigated Hunter Biden on gun and tax charges. Those investigations resulted in felony convictions, and President Joe Biden granted his son a pardon in late 2024.

Floris and Benavides led the task force that briefed Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson in August 2020. The senators were conducting their own review of Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine. News of the internal briefing leaked, prompting the senators to accuse the FBI of falsely linking their scrutiny to Russian disinformation efforts. The criminal complaint now asserts that the two officials denied having contemporaneous knowledge of the laptop in 2023.

The task force was disbanded in February 2025 by Attorney General Pam Bondi. The prosecution represents a rare instance of the Justice Department bringing criminal charges against former employees. Both Floris and Benavides deny the allegations of wrongdoing. The court will hear arguments on whether the evidence warrants a full trial.

The hearing takes place in federal court in Washington. The outcome will determine if the case proceeds to the next stage of litigation. The department views the case as a continuation of its review into how the FBI handled intelligence related to the 2020 election.