Two of the senior FBI officials who ran the bureau's election-security task force in 2020 surrendered on Friday, charged with lying to Congress about the FBI's investigations into Hunter Biden. Nikki Cole Floris, 46, of Alexandria, Virginia, and Bradley Benavides, 56, of Aiken, South Carolina, gave themselves up on arrest warrants issued after a criminal complaint charged each of them with making false statements in a matter within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch, under 18 U.S.C. ยง 1001(a)(2). Floris led the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force as a deputy assistant director from mid-2019 through mid-2022. Benavides was its section chief from mid-2019 through the 2020 election.
What they are accused of lying about is specific. In 2023, the House Judiciary Committee interviewed both officials about the task force's role in the Hunter Biden investigations, and each was warned that lying to Congress is a crime. Both testified that the Foreign Influence Task Force was not involved in the FBI's investigations into Hunter Biden. Floris told the committee she was involved in no discussions about Hunter Biden while she was at the task force. Benavides testified that he only learned the FBI possessed Hunter Biden's laptop from reading a Wikipedia article in 2023.
The government's affidavit answers that testimony with paper. According to the Justice Department, documentary evidence, contemporaneous communications and witness accounts contradict what the two officials swore to. The evidence shows Floris discussed the FBI's investigations into Hunter Biden routinely, for more than a year, both within the task force and with others in the FBI. Benavides, contrary to his Wikipedia account, regularly discussed the laptop with FBI officials in the leadup to the 2020 election. And in that leadup, the FBI had several investigations into Hunter Biden in which the Foreign Influence Task Force participated, the same task force whose leaders later told Congress it had no part in them.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrests in these words: "This morning two former FBI members of the now dissolved Foreign Influence Task Force, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, were taken into custody, charged with allegedly lying to Congress in 2023 on matters regarding investigations related to the 2020 election. One of these individuals is on record privately claiming to be 'running a shadow government' during the 2020 election. As we've said repeatedly: weaponization will never be tolerated at this FBI. We have already dismantled the corrupt CR-15 squad that engaged in political weaponization targeting their opponents, including President Trump, and anyone who abuses their position of public trust will be held accountable."
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, whose District of Columbia office brought the case, said: "Lying to Congress by anyone strikes at the heart of our democratic system but when senior FBI agents lie to Congress believing they are above the law, it's time to bring the hammer of justice down on them. When senior officials entrusted with safeguarding our nation's security choose deception over duty, they undermine the very institutions they swore to uphold. Today's action makes clear that no one is above the law, and we will hold accountable all who obstruct the truth."
The Foreign Influence Task Force led the FBI's efforts to secure the 2020 election from foreign malign influence, and it has since been dissolved. The charges are allegations at this stage, and the Justice Department's own announcement carries the standing note that charges in a complaint are merely allegations and every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. What stands documented today is narrower and harder: the officials who ran election security in 2020 are accused of swearing falsely about the Hunter Biden investigations, and the case against them, by the government's own account, is built on documents, communications and witnesses rather than on anyone's word alone.
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