New charges tossed against ex-FBI officials in Hunter Biden probe

CBS News and ABC News report that a federal magistrate judge in Washington, Zia Faruqui, threw out an overnight attempt by the Justice Department to add a new obstruction count against two former FBI officials, Nicole Floris and Bradley Benavides. Prosecutors had put the amended complaint on the public docket without a signature, an oath or a judge's probable-cause review. Faruqui said he had never seen that happen in his court and called it inappropriate. The original charge, that the pair misled Congress about their knowledge of the Hunter Biden laptop, remains, and a preliminary hearing will go forward on it, according to CBS News · ABC News.

ABC News adds that FBI agent Bryan Witt, under defense questioning, said FBI Director Kash Patel directed the investigation after a July address by President Donald Trump on election interference. Witt said he worried the assignment would look political. CBS News notes that prosecutor John Borchert denied the government feared a probable-cause finding, and that Floris's lawyer Mary Dohrmann described the case as a political football. ABC News also says Ron Safer, who represents Benavides, questioned whether his client had any motive to lie.

Summarized by PolitiKool from CBS News · ABC News and ABC News’s reporting. Read the full story at CBS News · ABC News → Also at ABC News →