Judge Strikes DOJ's New Obstruction Charge Against Two Ex-FBI Officials in Laptop Case

A federal magistrate judge in Washington on Tuesday struck a new obstruction charge the Justice Department filed against two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about the Hunter Biden laptop investigation. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui said prosecutors created their own category of charging with a superseding complaint filed overnight that no law enforcement officer or judge had signed. Nikki Floris, who ran the intelligence division at the Washington field office, and Bradley Benavides, a former deputy assistant director for counterintelligence, were charged last week with making false statements to Congress and surrendered on arrest warrants. Faruqui had set Tuesday's hearing so prosecutors could establish probable cause for the original complaint; no grand jury indictment was obtained. Prosecutor John Borchert acknowledged the step had never been done before and suggested the complaint could be signed in court. Faruqui refused, asked why the department had departed from every other case in the district's history, and said he did not doubt prosecutors acted in good faith but worried the system was being misused by higher-ups.

Fox News, the right-leaning outlet, leads with the judge's record, describing him as the magistrate who earlier apologized to a man accused of trying to assassinate President Trump, and links a profile of him. It adds that the new complaint softened some of the language prosecutors used about the officials' roles. NBC News and The New Republic, on the left, lead with the rebuke itself: NBC quotes Faruqui's "sideshow on top of a sideshow" remark and defense lawyer Mary Dohrmann's "political football" charge, while The New Republic stresses the missing probable-cause finding, the unsworn affidavit and the middle-of-the-night transmission. All sides agree Faruqui criticized an unsigned, unsworn filing made without judicial approval. They differ in what they foreground: the judge's past on the right, and procedural irregularity and political-motivation claims on the left. AP's coverage largely matches the others, noting prosecutors' unorthodox handling.