A federal magistrate judge in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday sharply criticised prosecutors and refused to sign off on a new criminal complaint against two former FBI officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, who are accused of making false statements to Congress about investigations involving Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden.
Source: Associated Press via The Bull Post
Prosecutors in the office of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro filed the amended — or superseding — complaint in the early hours of Tuesday, hours before a scheduled preliminary hearing. The new filing added a charge of obstruction of a congressional proceeding. It carried a signature block with Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui's name typed out, but the judge had not personally signed it.
Source: CNBC via USA News Hub
"I am not going to bless it as a superseding complaint," Faruqui said at the hearing, telling prosecutors that a judge first has to make a finding of 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," he said, adding: "I'm concerned with your view as to what the law is. Why today, on this one case, have you changed the entire history of how you charge cases?"
Lawyers for Floris and Benavides asked the judge to strike the superseding complaint, arguing in a statement that it was legally deficient and filed in bad faith. "In our combined decades of DOJ service, we have never seen or even heard of something like this being filed," the lawyers for Floris wrote, saying the public lodging of criminal charges must be authorised by a grand jury, a judge or the defendant herself.
The original case
The original complaint, unsealed last Friday, accuses Floris and Benavides of making false statements to the House Judiciary Committee in 2023 about their involvement in, and knowledge of, FBI investigations of Hunter Biden. Both were arrested on Friday and have been released. The charges are allegations: neither has been convicted of any crime, and their lawyers have described the case as politically motivated and disputed the government's account of their testimony.
What happens next
Faruqui was weighing the defence request to strike the new complaint. Even if it is struck, the Justice Department could still try to take the case to a grand jury and seek a felony indictment, the Associated Press reported. The prosecution is one of a series of politically charged Justice Department actions in the run-up to next week's midterm elections.