Judge Strikes Midnight DOJ Filing in Hunter Biden Laptop Case

The Department of Justice faces a procedural setback in its criminal case against two former FBI officials.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui struck an amended criminal complaint from the record on Tuesday. The Justice Department filed the document late at night to add a new obstruction charge. The complaint lacked the required judicial sign-off confirming probable cause.

“It is not our court’s practice, and I think it is appropriately not our practice, that unsigned complaints are filed on the docket,” Faruqui said. He questioned why the government altered its standard charging history for this specific matter.

The case targets Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, former leaders of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force. Prosecutors accuse them of making false statements to Congress regarding their knowledge of a laptop. The Justice Department contends the computer belonged to Hunter Biden and was abandoned at a repair shop in 2019.

Defense attorneys challenged the prosecution's approach during a preliminary hearing. They highlighted that the officials were charged via a criminal complaint signed by a magistrate rather than a grand jury indictment. The Justice Department has faced difficulties securing such indictments in Washington, D.C.

The attorneys for Floris and Benavides criticized the timing of the new filing. “What is going on at the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office?” the lawyers asked in a statement. They noted that the government filed an unsworn complaint to fix issues with the original charge.

The original false statements case remains active. It stems from briefings the former officials gave to Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson in August 2020. The lawmakers were investigating Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine at the time. The prosecution alleges the FBI leaders denied contemporaneous knowledge of the laptop in 2023.

The laptop issue gained national attention after the New York Post reported on its contents in 2020. President Donald Trump’s then-national intelligence director, John Ratcliffe, stated there were no signs of Russian involvement. The FBI investigated Hunter Biden on gun and tax charges, resulting in felony convictions. President Joe Biden pardoned his son in late 2024.

The Foreign Influence Task Force was disbanded in February 2025 by Attorney General Pam Bondi. The preliminary hearing is scheduled to continue with the original charges while the amended obstruction claim sits off the docket.