WASHINGTON — A federal judge Tuesday dismissed a new charge against a pair of former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress, finding the Justice Department took novel — and improper — steps to announce the allegation.Magistrate Judge Zia M.Faruqui said at a hearing that prosecutors created “their own category of charging” with the new complaint they tried to bring against Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, who were initially charged last week with making false statements to Congress about their level of knowledge about an investigation of Hunter Biden’s laptop.Government attorneys added an obstruction charge in a superseding criminal complaint that was filed overnight but not signed by any law enforcement officer or judge.
Prosecutor John Borchert of the U.S.attorney’s office for Washington, D.C., acknowledged in court Tuesday that “this has never been done before” but suggested the complaint could be signed during the hearing.Faruqui denied the request and struck the new complaint, questioning why the Justice Department hadn’t followed what it has done in “every other case in the history of this district.”He said that while he doesn’t doubt that the prosecution acted in good faith, he’s concerned that “this system is being misused by people of higher levels.”“Everything is a sideshow on top of a sideshow” in this case, Faruqui said.Mary Dohrmann, Floris’ lawyer, said there is mounting evidence that the case is a “political football,” not a case about “the law or the facts.”That came before an FBI agent who investigated the case against Floris and Benavides testified Tuesday that he’d had concerns it would be viewed as “political.”Flores and Benavides have been targets of withering criticism from allies of President Donald Trump.
Both were involved with election security issues around the 2020 contest, which Trump falsely claims was rigged.After they were arrested last week, Trump said, “I heard they were...