Two FBI agents, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, have been charged with allegedly lying to Congress regarding their roles in the handling of Hunter Biden's laptop. Prosecutors allege the pair actively worked to conceal the significance of the device and misled lawmakers about the FBI's actions.
Floris, formerly the deputy assistant director and "functional head" of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), is accused of denying knowledge of the laptop during congressional testimony in 2023. Prosecutors claim she was intimately involved in the FBI's handling of the laptop, which was seized in December 2019. The FITF allegedly ran a pre-2020 election operation called "Round River" to collect derogatory information on Hunter Biden from informants and falsely label it as "Russian disinformation."
Benavides, who served as FITF Section Chief, also allegedly professed ignorance when testifying to the House Judiciary Committee, claiming he learned about the laptop from a Wikipedia article. Prosecutors assert that both Floris and Benavides actively participated in classified briefings about the Hunter Biden case and requested frequent updates from the case team.
According to the charges, after The Post reported on the laptop in October 2020, Floris and Benavides convened multiple meetings to manage the fallout and prepared talking points for then-FBI Director Chris Wray. In August 2020, they reportedly conducted a "defensive briefing" for Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson. Grassley and Johnson have stated this briefing was intended to discredit their investigation into Hunter Biden's financial dealings.
Evidence cited includes an internal FBI chat from September 25, 2020, where Floris reportedly stated, "I’m basically running a shadow government across the FBI."
Prosecutors further allege that Benavides was aware of allegations regarding Hunter Biden receiving millions from foreign entities as early as March 2019. He was reportedly one of four FBI agents who interviewed Gal Luft in Brussels in March 2019. Luft, an Israeli-American professor, had alerted the FBI to payments made to Hunter Biden and his uncle Jim Biden by the Chinese energy company CEFC. Luft stated that Benavides appeared knowledgeable about CEFC operations during their interview. Luft was later indicted on charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent, violating U.S. sanctions on Iran, and making false statements.
Floris left the FBI in May for a position at Microsoft. Benavides retired from the FBI in 2022 and joined Amazon as a senior risk manager.
President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden leave Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Johns Island, South Carolina, after attending a Mass, Aug. 13, 2022.