Judge blocks obstruction charge as DOJ’s case against former FBI officials unravels
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A Washington magistrate judge struck down an overnight-filed obstruction allegation against former FBI employees Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, blasting the Justice Department for a bizarre filing tactic that ignored normal procedure.
A federal magistrate judge in Washington dismissed an obstruction charge added to a superseding criminal complaint against former FBI officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides. The judge said prosecutors had tried to create a “new category of charging” without following established procedures, noting that the complaint was filed overnight, unsigned, and unsworn.
Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui denied the request to add the charge, saying the Justice Department had not followed the practice used in “every other case in the history of this district.” He did not question the prosecutors’ good faith, but he said he was concerned that “this system is being misused by people of higher levels,” adding, “Everything is a sideshow on top of a sideshow.”
“In the middle of the night, the government filed an unsigned and unsworn complaint attempting to fix the issues with their original charge … and adding a new charge just as meritless as the first one,” Floris’ attorneys said, calling the filing unprecedented in their combined decades of DOJ service.
Prosecutor John Borchert acknowledged that the filing method “has never been done before,” and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro told reporters that the decision to add a charge rested with the judge.
An FBI special agent testified that the investigation into Floris and Benavides began after a directive from FBI Director Kash Patel and said he feared the case could be perceived as political. The hearing will continue on Wednesday.