Two former senior FBI officials who helped shape the public narrative around Hunter Biden’s laptop have been charged with lying to Congress about their involvement, officials announced Friday in Washington.

Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides self-surrendered after federal authorities filed charges stemming from their 2023 testimony to the House Judiciary Committee. The New York Post reported that D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest and subsequent charges. Both officials had served on the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force during the critical window around the 2020 election.

Prosecutors say the pair denied meaningful involvement in Hunter Biden matters even as internal records showed them deep in the discussions. An affidavit filed in D.C. federal court cites briefings, emails, instant messages, meetings, and witness accounts that contradict the sworn statements.

Fox News reported that the Justice Department charged the two with lying to Congress about their roles in the Hunter Biden investigations, including the laptop. Evidence shows Benavides discussed the laptop story with FBI colleagues, undercutting claims of distance from the matter.

Pirro did not say much on the stakes.

"Floris and Benavides allegedly lied to Congress about their roles in the FBI’s Hunter Biden investigations, with one claiming they only learned about it from Wikipedia, despite evidence showing their involvement in helping shape the public narrative about Hunter Biden’s laptop right before the election."

Patel laid out their leadership positions on the task force known as FITF. Floris served as Deputy Assistant Director from mid-2019 through mid-2022. Benavides was Section Chief from mid-2019 through the 2020 election.

Both told Congress the FITF had no role in the Hunter Biden investigations. Patel said the record says otherwise.

"Both testified that the FITF was not involved in the Hunter Biden investigations. Documentary evidence, contemporaneous communications, and witness accounts contradict their testimony."

The FBI seized Hunter Biden’s personal computer in December 2019. The New York Post published its story on the laptop emails on Oct. 14, 2020. In the days that followed, Floris and Benavides assisted with the bureau’s response to press inquiries. That work sits at the center of the charging theory.

Readers tracking the long arc of FBI efforts around Biden family corruption claims will recognize the pattern of narrative management that Congress has spent years trying to unwind.

On Oct. 16, 2020, Benavides wrote an email that landed on a chain including Floris. He floated language that acknowledged public concern the laptop story could look like a Russia disinformation effort similar to prior warnings from the FBI and ODNI, while stressing the bureau had made no such determination in this instance and would not comment on investigative actions. He closed by asking Floris for her thoughts. She replied, “Looks good!”

That exchange sits uneasily beside later sworn denials. In a July 19, 2023, transcribed interview with the House Judiciary Committee, Floris was asked whether she had any involvement in the Hunter Biden investigation.

"I did not."

Pressed on whether the FITF discussed Hunter Biden, she said, “No. At least not with me,” and added that she personally had no such conversations even if a team below her might have. She also stated she had no knowledge of the laptop.

Benavides faced similar questions on Sept. 28, 2023. Asked if he had any knowledge during his FBI tenure of an investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop, he answered, “No.” He further testified he would not have discussed the laptop within the government and that FBI possession of it would have fallen outside FITF.

National Review reported that each faces one count of lying to Congress about FITF involvement. Benavides claimed he learned of the laptop only from Wikipedia in 2023. Prosecutors allege the false statements were made to conceal the task force’s engagement and communications about the Hunter Biden probes and to impede the congressional investigation.

A current FBI employee interviewed by federal investigators in October 2026 described both Floris and Benavides as part of a working group called “Round River” that “focused in large part on the Hunter Biden investigations and the potential for Russian disinformation.” The employee also accused the pair of concealing relationships with investigators and prosecutors close to those probes while they served on FITF.

Patel added another detail from Floris’s own private comments.

"Floris is also on record privately claiming to be ‘running a shadow government’ during the 2020 election in her role on the FITF."

The laptop itself has remained a flashpoint for years, resurfacing in everything from congressional probes to odd market sideshows such as the short-lived Hunter Biden laptop meme coin collapse that left thousands of investors underwater.

Pirro framed the charges as a necessary check on senior agents who treated Congress as optional.

"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."

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton told the Post these are the most senior figures charged to date in what he called the lawfare schemes against Trump, aside from James Comey. The two former officials could not immediately be reached for comment after the announcement.

Hunter Biden’s personal troubles and family disclosures have kept him in the headlines long after the 2020 election, including accounts of Joe Biden’s motorcade visits to a drug house during the vice presidency and later health updates on the former president.

The charging documents make plain that the FITF leaders were not distant observers. They managed press responses, traded emails on the laptop narrative in real time, and later told Congress they barely knew the matter existed. That gap between the paper trail and the sworn record is what brought the case to D.C. federal court.

Separate market stunts tied to the same laptop story, including a memecoin that lost nearly all its value within an hour, only underscore how thoroughly the original evidence was buried and then belatedly excavated.

Congress asked direct questions in 2023. The answers came back clean and categorical. The emails, the working group, the press guidance, and the witness accounts now sit in an affidavit that says those answers were false. Accountability for senior officials who steer public narratives while denying the work under oath is not optional if the system is to hold.

When the people writing the story later swear they never saw the script, the public is right to demand the full record, and the charges that follow.