Wire reporting: (AP, via Anchorage Daily News)

WASHINGTON — A federal magistrate on Tuesday criticized how the Justice Department amended a criminal complaint against two former FBI officials accused of making false statements to Congress about investigations involving Hunter Biden^2,3.

The defendants, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, were charged Friday by complaint with lying to Congress; both appeared in U.S. District Court in Washington and deny the accusations¹. Prosecutors added an obstruction-of-a-congressional-proceeding count overnight before Tuesday's hearing^1,3.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said he was distressed that the amended complaint, which included the new count, was filed without the judicial sign-off that such charging papers require^2,3. Defense lawyers asked the court to strike the complaint; if that happened, the department could still seek a felony indictment^2,4.

The complaint says Floris and Benavides, who led the FBI Foreign Influence Task Force, lied to lawmakers in 2023 by denying contemporaneous knowledge of a laptop the department says Hunter Biden left at a repair shop in 2019, or of internal FBI talks about it^2,5. The department says Floris testified July 19, 2023, and Benavides on Sept. 28, 2023¹.

Floris's attorneys said the last-minute filing was procedurally improper and a serious abuse of the charging process¹. Ron Safer, a lawyer for Benavides, said the government should present evidence at the scheduled hearing against two public servants¹.

On Friday, Faruqui questioned charging old facts by complaint rather than indictment and set Tuesday to test probable cause¹. Lawyers for the pair have called the case politically timed ahead of next week's midterm elections⁵. The task force was disbanded in February 2025 by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi^2,5.

What the court will do with the amended complaint, and whether prosecutors will proceed by indictment if it is struck, was not resolved in the reporting available Tuesday afternoon^2,4.