WASHINGTON (AP) — Two former FBI officials charged with lying to Congress about their participation in investigations involving Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden, are due back in court Tuesday in a case their lawyers have described as baseless and politically motivated.
The prosecution of Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, announced Friday, is the latest in a series of splashy and politically charged investigative actions the Justice Department has undertaken in the run-up to next week’s midterm elections.
The case accuses the former officials of falsely playing down their knowledge about a laptop the Justice Department says Hunter Biden abandoned at a computer repair shop in 2019. But beyond that, it represents a Trump administration broadside against a since-disbanded FBI task force that was set up to monitor foreign influence. Congressional Republicans have long criticized the task force, saying it tried to discredit their own investigations into the Biden family.
Defense lawyers are expected to challenge the case at a preliminary hearing Tuesday in Washington's federal court, including by highlighting the unusual fact that the ex-FBI officials were charged via a criminal complaint signed by a magistrate judge rather than an indictment voted on by a grand jury. The Justice Department is thought to have repeatedly struggled in high-profile cases to persuade grand juries in the nation’s capital to return indictments.
The prosecution, a rare Justice Department criminal case against a former employee, revisits a tangled saga that roiled the final weeks of the 2020 race after the New York Post revealed the existence of a laptop it said had been dropped off by the younger Biden at a Delaware computer repair shop about a year earlier.
The Post said it had obtained a hard drive of the laptop from Rudy Giuliani, a close ally of President Donald Trump, and reported on some of the contents of the computer, including emails that appeared to show some of Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings.
The curious circumstances of the laptop’s discovery raised concerns among Democrats and former intelligence officials about the possibility of Russian involvement, particularly when the Trump administration’s own intelligence community had assessed that Moscow was attempting to undermine the candidacy of Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who went on to defeat Trump in 2020, and as Giuliani had traveled abroad looking for dirt on the Bidens.
But Trump's then-national intelligence director, John Ratcliffe, quickly sought to quell speculation about the laptop's provenance by saying there were no signs it had anything to do with Russian actors. The FBI said it had nothing to add to Ratcliffe's statement and investigated the younger Biden on gun and tax charges that later resulted in felony convictions. President Joe Biden pardoned his son in late 2024.
The FBI officials under scrutiny, Floris and Benavides, were leaders of the Foreign Influence Task Force, which was established in the first Trump administration to police influence campaigns staged by Russia and other nations aimed at sowing discord, undermining democracy and spreading disinformation.
In that capacity, the FBI officials briefed Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson in August 2020 as the lawmakers were doing their own investigation into Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine. News of the briefing leaked, and the senators lashed out at the FBI, saying their efforts to scrutinize the Biden family had been discredited and falsely linked to Russian disinformation.
The criminal complaint accuses them of lying to lawmakers in 2023 by denying contemporaneous knowledge of the Biden laptop or participating in internal FBI conversations about it. Their lawyers have denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
The task force was disbanded in February 2025 by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi.
FILE - Hunter Biden steps into a vehicle as he leaves federal court, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)
FILE - Hunter Biden arrives for a closed-door deposition on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 28, 2024. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Deputy Assistant Director for Counterterrorism at the FBI Nikki Floris, testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Taylor Walls stabbed at Brice Turang's sharp grounder and felt it glance off his glove.
“Knife in the chest,” the Tampa Bay Rays shortstop said.
Tampa Bay's first World Series game at Tropicana Field in 18 years turned into a record-setter for Brewers batters.
Milwaukee became the first team to score eight runs with two outs in a World Series inning, routing the Rays 10-1 on Monday night to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Turang's two-run single was the second of a postseason-record seven straight two-out hits against starter Freddy Peralta and relievers Cam Booser and Cole Sulser.
Milwaukee turned a 2-0 lead into a 7-0 advantage with hits on three straight pitches by Turang, Garrett Mitchell and Cooper Pratt. The Brewers went on to score eight runs in a 17-pitch span to open a 10-run advantage. Jackson Chourio had a single and a double in the inning, part of his four-hit night.
"Worst feeling in the world, feeling like you let your team down,” a downcast Booser said in the quiet Tampa Bay clubhouse.
Among 25 previous teams that fell behind 3-0 in a World Series, 21 were swept and four lost in five games. Of 43 teams to trail 3-0 in any best-of-seven postseason matchup, only the Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series rebounded to win.
“It’s kind of that chip and a chair mentality," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We’ve got a seat at the table. We’ve got to do something with the chip. Obviously the only thing we can do is win tomorrow.”
Coming off a pair of one-run wins at American Family Field, the Brewers took a 2-0 lead in the third when Christian Yelich and William Contreras hit opposite-field, one-out RBI singles on consecutive pitches.
“They were very disciplined at the plate,” Peralta said. “Just tried to hit the ball the other way.”
Chourio singled with one out in the fifth and Christian Yelich walked with two outs. Contreras grounded to third and Junior Caminero threw to second as umpire Dan Bellino signaled a forceout. But the call was reversed in the New York replay operations center by umpire Alfonso Márquez, giving Contreras an infield single that loaded the bases.
Caminero may have had a better chance of throwing out Contreras at first base.
“I knew the speed at first base wasn’t necessarily the best in that situation,” Caminero said through a translator. “So going into the moment, once I got the groundball I was going to second base all the way.”
Booser relieved and Turang’s 106 mph one-hopper hit the dirt just past the infield grass, bounced off Walls' glove and into short center field.
“I’d like to have that one back. Those are plays that you’d like to make, that you expect to make even though they may be on the tougher end,” Walls said. “That was pretty much the turning point in the game there.”
Walls dropped to a knee and held out his glove at shoulder level trying to make what would have been an excellent stop, then tumbled as the ball bounced past him.
“You just try to get your eyes as close to where the ball is going to be, the height of the hop,” he said. “Ideally, I guess if you want to talk about fractions, if you can get your glove behind the ball and work more backwards you have a better chance to make the play than if you’re slightly above it having to kind of work down a little bit, which is where I kind of felt I was.”
Mitchell grounded an opposite-field RBI single through the shortstop hole vacated with Walls shifted toward second for the left-handed batter. Pratt followed with a smash off the glove of a diving Caminero that rolled into the left-field corner for a two-run double.
Sal Frelick sliced an opposite-field double that hit the wall on a hop in the left-field corner, scoring Pratt and chasing Booser.
David Hamilton greeted Sulser by lining a shoulder-high fastball into center for a run-scoring single and a 9-0 lead. Chourio then lofted an opposite-field RBI double that hit just in front of the warning track.
Boston set the previous Series high of seven runs with two outs in the fifth inning of the 2007 opener against Colorado, a feat matched three years later by San Francisco in the eighth inning of Game 2 against Texas, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Los Angeles Dodgers were the only prior team with eight two-out runs in any postseason inning, scoring 10 with two outs in the first inning of Game 3 against Atlanta in the 2020 NL Championship Series.
Griffin Jax said he'll put the Series deficit out of his mind when he starts Game 4 on Tuesday.
“We just got our butts kicked tonight. I don’t think there’s really much else to say,” Jax explained. “We’ll just kind of forget it and try to sleep it off and come back tomorrow ready to fight.”
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Junior Caminero watches from the dugout during the eighth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Taylor Walls fields a two-RBI base hit by Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Brice Turang during the fifth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Cam Booser leaves the game during the fifth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Tampa Bay Rays players watch from the dugout during the fifth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Milwaukee Brewers designated hitter Christian Yelich celebrates scoring with shortstop Cooper Pratt (12) off a base hit by second baseman Brice Turang during the fifth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Brice Turang connects for a two-RBI base hit during the fifth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Milwaukee Brewers' Jackson Chourio (11) celebrates after scores on a hit by Christian Yelich during the third inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Members of the Tampa Bay Rays watch during the seventh inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
