Trump DOJ charges two ex-FBI officials with lying to Congress in Hunter Biden laptop probe

The Justice Department charged two former FBI agents Friday with lying to Congress during the Hunter Biden laptop investigation.

Former intelligence analyst Nikki Floris, who ran the intelligence division at the Washington Field Office, and Bradley Benavides, a former deputy assistant director for counterintelligence, surrendered on arrest warrants earlier Friday. During the following hearing in Washington, U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui said that the case pertained to "Hunter Biden's laptop, investigations around that."

Attorney Condemns Charges

Floris's attorney condemned the charges in a statement.

"Nikki Floris is a patriot. She served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years. Yet today, the [Justice Department] 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 charges come just 10 days before the midterms.

Background of the Laptop Scandal

The laptop scandal began in December 2019, when a Wilmington, Delaware–area computer repair shop owner gave an abandoned laptop purportedly belonging to Biden to Donald Trump's former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani then handed a copy of the laptop's hard drive to local law enforcement, which handed over the contents to the FBI.

In the years that followed, Republicans leveraged the laptop's myriad contents to escalate scrutiny and speculation surrounding the Biden family's business dealings with Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas and energy company.

Giuliani and Steve Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist, insisted that the laptop contained evidence that the Biden family made millions of dollars after former President Joe Biden and a Burisma adviser held a meeting. (The New York Post, which ran the original story on its front page, later said that the contents of the laptop were mixed with fake material and that most of the data could not be verified.)

The alleged meeting became central to an impeachment probe against the elder Biden. Republicans claimed at the time that Biden had engaged in corruption, and had peddled the influence of his vice presidency to rake in cash.

Briefing to Lawmakers and Collapse of Investigation

Floris and Benavides briefed Republican lawmakers in 2020 about the contents of the laptop as part of a congressional investigation. Senator Chuck Grassley has since claimed that the pair gave the briefing in order to cast the probe as Russian disinformation.

But the entire investigation fell apart in 2024 after its star witness, Alexander Smirnov, admitted the conspiracy was in fact Russian disinformation. Smirnov admitted to Justice Department prosecutors that "officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved" in fabricating the Hunter Biden narrative. In the ensuing fallout, Smirnov told investigators he was in contact with "four different [top] Russian officials," two of whom were the "heads of the entities they represent."

Read more about Biden:

• Trump Is Quietly Trying to Free Man Who Lied About Hunter Biden

Trump Dismisses Questions on Starlink Interruptions in Ukraine

President Trump brushed aside questions Friday about interruptions to Starlink service for Ukraine, following complaints from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier in the day.

"You must know now who ordered the Starlink access in Ukraine to be restricted. Who was it?" a reporter asked Trump outside of the White House. Trump denied any knowledge, and replied, "Well, I wouldn't tell you if I did," asking who the reporter worked for. When she said, "CNN," he chuckled.

"Why would I tell CNN?" Trump said, before saying the network did some "nice polls" on him recently.

Zelenskiy: Speed Not Restored

Earlier in the day, Zelenskiy said regarding Starlink that "the speed has not been restored," despite Trump's claim that Elon Musk, who owns the company, had restored access. Ukrainian military and government officials told The Wall Street Journal that connections were failing at higher drone speeds, hurting defense capabilities.

Another reporter asked Trump if he had told Musk to stop messing around with Ukraine's connection.

"I have not spoken to him. I might have to, but I have not. I've heard it was fixed, but if it's not, I'll speak to him," Trump said.

Blame Exchanged Over Throttling

Trump and Musk are each blaming each other for the decision to throttle Ukraine's Starlink service last week, which allowed Russia to launch a massive aerial attack on the country. The Wall Street Journal earlier this week reported that Musk in fact ordered internet speeds to slow down, and discussed the decision with Trump ahead of time.

In other world news:

• Hacked Docs Reveal How Germany's Far-Right AfD Has Been Courting Trump

White House Involved in FBI Epstein Files Memo, Messages Reveal

The White House was involved in the FBI's Epstein files cover-up all along.

The FBI's July 2025 Epstein files memo immediately blew up in the bureau's face. Its declaration that there was no "client list," no punishable co-conspirators, and no grounds for further investigation both infuriated the president's MAGA voter base and started the long domino effect that would eventually oust ex–Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Budowich's Role in Drafting Process

Trump administration messages obtained by Raw Story revealed Friday that Taylor Budowich, then the White House deputy chief of staff, had his fingers in the FBI's drafting process prior to the memo's public release.

"Have something I can edit?" Budowich emailed FBI Director Kash Patel two weeks before the memo was released. The email's subject line read: "Re: Draft memo from DOJ—we have not edited it yet."

"Just got it from DOJ. Here you go. Thanks," Patel responded hours later.

The next day, Budowich told Patel that he had passed the draft along to the White House communications team, noting that the message needed to be pasted on DOJ and FBI letterhead, according to Raw Story.

Almost a week later, then–Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche sent a "final version" to Budowich. It failed to meet Budowich's expectations, however, lacking the identifying seal of the Justice Department.

"I need a version on letterhead," Budowich repeated. "Someone needs to own this. I can't give a doc to a reporter that could easily be confused with a [high school] term paper, so need to provide some validation of the doc."

Diego Pestana, Blanche's counsel, fulfilled Budowich's request an hour and a half later.

Ethics Concerns Raised

"These records show that Kash Patel worked hand in hand with the former White House deputy chief of staff on the 2025 DOJ-FBI memo, which stated there would be no further investigation or release of the Epstein files," Chris Swartz, senior counsel and deputy director of ethics and anti-corruption at the Democracy Defenders Fund, told Raw Story.

"It's deeply concerning that the FBI coordinated with the White House on this memo, given President Trump's well-documented association with Jeffrey Epstein and Trump's frequent mention in the files," Swartz added.

Read more about the Epstein files:

• Epstein Survivors Got Kicked Out of the Republican Midterm Convention

DOJ Sues to Block Alaska Senate Election Certification

The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit to block Alaska from certifying its Senate election results in the event that Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses to Democrat Mary Peltola. This move is the Trump administration's most blatant effort to swing ballots in Republicans' favor this November.

Lawsuit Alleges Voter Confusion

The lawsuit alleges that the Senate election should be nullified if Sullivan loses because there's another "Daniel J. Sullivan" on the ballot also running as a Republican, and the Trump administration thinks voters will be too confused—even though Dan Sullivan is properly listed as the incumbent on the ballot.

"Daniel J. Sullivan decided to run for Senator in 2026 as a Republican with the intention of misleading supporters of Senator Sullivan into voting for him," the DOJ lawsuit alleges. "The sole purpose of his candidacy is to benefit the Peltola campaign by reducing the number of votes for Senator Sullivan."

Alarm Across Political Sphere

The lawsuit raised alarm across the political sphere.

"Surprising that the president who tried to end American democracy and stay in power even though he lost is queuing up additional ways to try to end democracy in America," the Center for American Progress's Bobby Kogan mused online.

"Election Day isn't the end of the fight," the Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson wrote. "Get ready to get loud."

"Trump isn't going to try to interfere in the midterms, he's already getting started," chimed journalist Pedro L. Gonzalez. "They're going to do this everywhere they think they can get away with it."

This lawsuit comes just a day after Attorney General and former Trump personal attorney Todd Blanche admitted that he was open to blocking states from certifying elections. Now his DOJ is attempting to do just that.

Again, it is extremely abnormal for the Justice Department to be involved in election certification.

Editor's Pick:

• Todd Blanche Won't Rule Out Trump Trying to Steal the Election (Again)

Trump Lashes Out at Reporter Over Defense of Ramaswamy Attack Ad

President Donald Trump blew up at a reporter Friday who questioned his vile defense of Vivek Ramaswamy's ugly attack ad featuring Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton's estranged mother.

Speaking to reporters, Trump struggled to defend the campaign ad featuring Donna Arthur, who lost custody of Acton after years of documented issues, including homelessness and sexual abuse by her stepfather.

"A mother is saying, don't put my daughter there because she's a terrible person, and she's a liar," Trump said. "Why shouldn't somebody use that?"

"But do the sexual abuse allegations mean nothing to you, sir?" the reporter asked. "But do the sexual abuse allegations make no difference?"

"Wait, wait, wait, slow down. Who are you with? Who are you with?" Trump said.

"I'm with NBC, sir," the reporter replied.

"One of the worst networks you have," Trump sneered, but the reporter continued to press him.

"Quiet," the president snapped. "Isn't she a fresh person? You're a horrible littl—"

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