Two former senior FBI officials surrendered on charges they lied to Congress about Hunter Biden investigations, with prosecutors citing internal records that undercut their 2023 testimony.

Nicole “Nikki” Floris, 46, of Alexandria, Virginia, and Bradley Benavides, 56, of Aiken, South Carolina, turned themselves in on arrest warrants after a criminal complaint filed Oct. 20 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Each faces a single count of making false statements to lawmakers about their roles in the bureau’s work on Hunter Biden matters, including the laptop that later surfaced as a central piece of evidence.

The Daily Caller reported the pair appeared in Washington’s federal court and asked for a swift hearing to contest the allegations. The charges grow out of testimony they gave the House Judiciary Committee in 2023, when the panel examined the FBI’s handling of the Hunter Biden file.

Both had led the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, the unit created to guard the 2020 election against foreign meddling. Floris served as deputy assistant director from mid-2019 through mid-2022. Benavides was section chief from mid-2019 through the 2020 election. The bureau shut the task force down in February 2025. An investigation into that unit continues.

Prosecutors say the record contradicts their sworn accounts

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced the case and framed it in plain terms. In a statement carried across official channels, she said the pair allegedly lied about their work on the Hunter Biden investigations, with one claiming he only learned of the laptop from Wikipedia even as evidence showed involvement in shaping the public narrative right before the election.

"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."

Fox News reported Pirro’s warning that senior officials who choose deception over duty undermine the institutions they swore to uphold. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia added that evidence shows Floris discussed the FBI’s Hunter Biden investigations routinely for more than a year, both inside the task force and with other bureau officials.

Benavides told House investigators he first learned about the laptop from a Wikipedia entry while preparing for his 2023 interview. Internal records tell a different story. The complaint cites emails showing he traded messages about the device with FBI colleagues in the weeks before the 2020 election and regularly discussed it with bureau officials in the lead-up to that vote.

Breitbart noted the same core contradiction: Floris headed the task force and routinely discussed the probes, contrary to testimony of no involvement, while Benavides regularly talked about the laptop despite the Wikipedia claim.

Task force leaders denied any role in the laptop matter

Both officials testified that the Foreign Influence Task Force was not involved in the Hunter Biden investigations. FBI Director Kash Patel said documentary evidence, contemporaneous communications, and witness accounts contradict that testimony. Patel also stated that Floris is on record privately claiming to be “running a shadow government” during the 2020 election in her task-force role.

"Lying to Congress by senior FBI officials strikes at the heart of our system. No one is above the law."

The Washington Examiner reported Patel’s account of the July and September 2023 testimony and the records that undercut it. Patel further noted the FBI has already dismantled the CR-15 squad that engaged in political weaponization targeting opponents, including President Trump.

The New York Post detailed additional testimony lines. Asked whether she had “any involvement in the Hunter Biden investigation,” Floris answered, “I did not.” She also testified, “I don’t have any knowledge of said laptop.” Prosecutors say internal messages show the pair helped shape the public narrative on the laptop, with Benavides promoting a Russian-disinformation claim that Floris approved.

The New York Post added that the two face up to five years in prison each if convicted. The laptop itself was later authenticated by the FBI during Hunter Biden’s 2024 federal gun trial.

Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson had earlier accused the officials of using a 2020 briefing about Russian disinformation to weaken their own inquiry into the Biden family’s foreign business dealings. That earlier criticism now sits alongside formal charges.

Defense calls the case political and late

Floris’s attorneys rejected the charges in a statement to Fox News. They described her as a patriot who served nearly 20 years as an FBI intelligence officer and said the Justice Department accused her falsely on the say-so of politicians rather than facts. They called the timing no coincidence, coming years later on the eve of an election.

"Nikki Floris is a patriot. She served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years. Yet today, the DOJ has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts. It’s no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election."

The defense posture puts the case on a fast track for a contested hearing in Washington federal court. Prosecutors, for their part, present the complaint as straightforward: senior officials entrusted with national security chose deception over duty when they appeared before Congress.

Readers following the long arc of Biden-family scrutiny will recognize the pattern of institutional friction already covered in earlier reporting on the same task-force fallout. The new charges move that dispute from oversight hearings into criminal court.

The broader political climate around Biden-family controversies continues to draw high-profile commentary, as seen when public figures faced private pushback after criticizing the former president. Accountability for sworn statements to Congress stands on its own footing.

The Justice Department’s action lands after years of public argument over how the FBI handled the laptop, foreign-influence claims, and related briefings. Officials who once managed the task force now answer in court for what they told lawmakers under oath. The complaint, the emails, and the testimony form the record that a judge and jury will weigh.

When senior agents treat Congress as optional, the public loses the one check that keeps the bureaucracy honest. No badge places anyone beyond the law.