Two former FBI officials who helped shape the public narrative surrounding Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop were charged on Friday with lying to Congress about their role in discrediting the revelations concerning President Joe Biden’s son.
Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides voluntarily surrendered to the police. They each face up to five years in prison if convicted. Through their lawyers, both former senior officials in the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) deny any wrongdoing.
The House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee questioned the two in 2023 as part of a wide-ranging investigation into then-President Joe Biden’s alleged family corruption and influence peddling, linked to his son Hunter Biden, who has previously struggled with drug addiction.
During the hearings, Floris and Benavides denied any involvement in the investigation into Hunter Biden. According to federal authorities, this effectively helped to halt further lines of inquiry, reports the New York Post.
– Floris and Benavides are alleged to have lied to Congress about their roles in the FBI’s investigation into Hunter Biden. One claimed that he first learnt of the case through Wikipedia, despite evidence that they helped shape the public narrative about Hunter Biden’s laptop in the run-up to the election, said Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for Washington, D.C., when she announced the charges on Friday alongside FBI Director Kash Patel.
Spread allegations of Russian disinformation
Internal FBI memos, emails and witness statements from other staff members show that the two discussed Hunter Biden and his laptop repeatedly ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
Both contributed to the FBI’s responses to enquiries from the press in the days following The Post’s sensational revelation on 14 October 2020. The newspaper then published emails showing how Hunter Biden had introduced a Ukrainian businessman to his father.
According to an email dated 16 October 2020, to which the FBI refers in the indictment, Benavides spread the false claim that the laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign. Floris replied: ‘Looks good!’
Benavides also organised a meeting in Microsoft Outlook entitled ‘To discuss the laptop’. Both had been part of an informal working group known as ‘Round River’, which gathered damaging information about Hunter Biden from informants.
Floris was also copied in on an email sent after the 2020 election containing scandalous claims that Hunter Biden had allegedly threatened a sex worker in Los Angeles. In a text message, the President’s son is said to have written:
– Don’t forget that I know where you are, that you’re wearing an ankle bracelet and that the laptop recorded it.
Referred to Wikipedia
During a transcribed interview with the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee on 19 July 2023, Floris was asked whether she had had any involvement whatsoever in the investigation into Hunter Biden.
– ‘I did not,’ she replied.
She also claimed that she was unaware of the laptop in question, which the FBI seized in December 2019.
Benavides, for his part, claimed that he first learnt of the investigation through Wikipedia.
– “When did you learn that a criminal investigation was underway in connection with the laptop?” asked a staff member of the Judiciary Committee.
– “The Wikipedia page,” replied Benavides. He also claimed that it was through the online encyclopaedia that he learnt the FBI had seized Hunter’s laptop.
Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson also received so-called defensive briefings from Floris and Benavides. Both senators perceived this as an attempt to interfere with their own congressional investigations into Hunter Biden.
Floris’s lawyers argue that the indictment is based on the politicians’ allegations, not facts, and that the charges are being brought several years later, just before an election, for political reasons. Benavides’ lawyer has requested a court hearing next week to assess whether the evidence is sufficient.
“These are the highest-ranking individuals to date to have been charged in the legal attacks against Trump, apart from former FBI Director James Comey,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told The New York Post.
