Nikki Floris

Introduction

Nikki Cole Floris is a 46-year-old former senior FBI intelligence official from Alexandria, Virginia, who led the bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force as a deputy assistant director from mid-2019 through mid-2022 and was charged on October 23, 2026, with lying to Congress about the task force’s role in the FBI’s Hunter Biden investigations. Floris — formerly an intelligence analyst in charge in the FBI’s Washington Field Office — self-surrendered on an arrest warrant Friday morning along with Bradley Benavides, 56, the task force’s former section chief, and each was charged with one count of making a false statement in a matter within the jurisdiction of Congress, according to DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro and FBI Director Kash Patel .

Background Information

Floris spent nearly two decades as an FBI intelligence officer, according to the statement from her own attorneys, and by 2019 was appearing before the House Judiciary Committee as the FBI’s Deputy Assistant Director for Counterterrorism. Her disputed assignment came leading the Foreign Influence Task Force, a since-disbanded unit set up to counter foreign election interference, from mid-2019 through mid-2022; Benavides, her co-defendant, served as the task force’s section chief from mid-2019 through the 2020 election. Both roles overlapped October 2020, when the New York Post publicized the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop — a hard drive obtained from Rudy Giuliani that had been dropped off at a Delaware repair shop — injecting a charged storyline into the final weeks of the presidential race. CBS News, citing court records, also describes Floris as a former intelligence analyst in charge in the bureau’s Washington Field Office and Benavides as a former deputy assistant director in the Counterintelligence Division .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged, not tried. The account below comes from a criminal complaint and statements by the Justice Department, the FBI, and the defendants’ attorneys. The false-statement charges are accusations. Neither Floris nor Benavides has been tried, no plea is on record, and both are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The charges stem from transcribed interviews the two ex-officials gave the House Judiciary Committee in July and September 2023, according to a source familiar with the matter cited by the New York Post. According to the complaint, both told the committee the Foreign Influence Task Force was not involved in FBI investigations into Hunter Biden; Floris said she took part in no discussions about Hunter Biden while assigned to the task force, and Benavides said he first learned the FBI had Hunter Biden’s laptop from a Wikipedia article in 2023. Pirro said one of them claimed the bureau only learned about the laptop “from Wikipedia” despite evidence they helped shape the public narrative about it before the election .

Prosecutors allege the testimony was false. A statement of facts prepared by the FBI alleges Floris made her false statements on July 19, 2023, and Benavides did the same that September, and states there is probable cause to believe they lied “for the purpose of concealing” the task force’s engagement with and communications about the Hunter Biden investigations and impeding the congressional inquiry. The complaint alleges Hunter Biden was a recurring subject at task force meetings, that Floris discussed the investigations for more than a year, and that Benavides regularly discussed the laptop with FBI officials before the 2020 election. An FBI unit chief told investigators in October 2026 that both had oversight roles in the various Hunter Biden probes, CBS News reported. Patel put it more bluntly: “Both testified that the FITF was not involved in the Hunter Biden investigations. Documentary evidence, contemporaneous communications, and witness accounts contradict their testimony” .

Public Reaction and Consequences

Floris’ attorneys — a group including Margaret Donovan — called the charges “nonsense” and politically timed: “Nikki Floris is a patriot. She served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years. Yet today, the DOJ has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts,” the statement read. “It’s no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election.” Benavides’ attorney Ron Safer told the court the alleged conduct happened years ago and the government has had the information for years, pressing for a speedy hearing to contest the allegations. The Associated Press noted the case was filed 10 days before the November 3 midterms and lands amid FBI Director Patel’s backward-looking scrutiny of episodes from the bureau’s recent past; Patel himself said, “Lying to Congress by senior FBI officials strikes at the heart of our system. No one is above the law.” The Post reported that representatives for the pair could not immediately be reached for comment .

Current Status

As of October 23, 2026, Floris and Benavides had surrendered on arrest warrants, appeared before Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui in federal court in Washington, and been charged with one count each of making a false statement in a matter within the jurisdiction of Congress. The charges are unadjudicated: no pleas are on record, and their lawyers are pressing for a speedy hearing at which they can contest the allegations. The prosecution is a rare Justice Department criminal case against a former FBI employee, and the underlying investigation into the dissolved task force is described as ongoing. No trial date had been reported in the coverage available as of this writing .

Impact on Their Career/Life

For Floris, the charge ends a career her attorneys describe as nearly twenty years of FBI intelligence service — an arc that ran from briefing Congress on counterterrorism in 2019 to standing before a magistrate as a criminal defendant. A false-statement conviction for testimony to Congress carries prison exposure, and the case revives the most politically explosive episode of the 2020 election at a moment when the Justice Department is openly re-litigating the FBI’s past conduct. Floris’ own defense frames the prosecution as retribution timed to an election calendar; the government’s framing, in Pirro’s words, is that the two used their positions to conceal the task force’s role and impede a congressional investigation. Either way, the case has already made her a central figure in the fight over the bureau’s institutional legacy .

Sources

NY Post, “FBI officials who covered up Hunter Biden laptop charged with lying to Congress,” October 23, 2026 — source
CBS News, “2 ex-FBI officials charged with lying to Congress about Hunter Biden laptop probe,” October 23, 2026 — source
WJLA 7News, “Former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress in Hunter Biden investigation,” October 23, 2026 — source
Associated Press (via The Journal), “2 ex-FBI intelligence officials are charged with lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop,” October 23, 2026 — source
CNBC, “Two ex-FBI officials charged with allegedly lying about Hunter Biden probe: DOJ,” October 23, 2026 — source