The lawyer of a former FBI official who was prosecuted for perjury before Congress fiercely criticized the Washington federal prosecutors for adding an "unsigned, unsworn" criminal charge to his case just hours before the trial.
"What exactly is the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C. doing?" asked the lawyer of former official Nicky Flores (Nikki Floris) in a statement on Tuesday morning. "In our combined decades of experience working at the Department of Justice, we have never seen, nor even heard of, such documents being submitted."
In the early hours of that day, the office led by Jennie Piro ( Jeanine Pirro ) submitted a "supplementary criminal complaint," accusing Flores and her co-defendant, another former FBI official Bradley Benavides ( Bradley Benavides ), of obstructing and attempting to obstruct congressional proceedings.
This new allegation is added on top of the charge of "making false statements to Congress" disclosed by the U.S. Department of Justice four days ago.
Floris and Benavides were initially accused of lying when testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in 2023, regarding their involvement in the investigation into Hunter Biden, the son of then-President Joe Biden.
The allegations against these two former agents were made shortly before the election date, a practice that contradicts the long-standing guidance of the Department of Justice and has also heightened concerns among election observers and Democrats that the Trump administration may attempt to interfere with the midterms.
The cases regarding Flores and Benavides were submitted to the Federal District Court of Columbia through a sealed criminal complaint. This is different from a criminal indictment, which must be approved by a grand jury by the prosecutor.
Criminal complaints do not require the approval of a grand jury, therefore they can be filed more quickly; in situations where the prosecution needs to act swiftly, they are often used to establish possible motives in order to obtain an arrest warrant.
However, the relevant actions in the Flores and Benavides case occurred more than three years ago.
"In the middle of the night, the government submitted a complaint that was neither signed nor sworn, attempting to fix the issues in their original charges against Ms. Flores, and on that basis, added a new charge that was just as unfounded," wrote the lawyer of this former FBI official in a statement on Tuesday.
"In our combined decades of experience working at the Department of Justice, we have never seen, nor even heard of, such a document being submitted. This is because publicly making criminal charges requires authorization from a grand jury, a judge, or the defendant themselves," they wrote.
"Here, the government has taken this power for itself, desperately trying to delay our clients' right to challenge the accusations in court, and attempting to try this case in the media rather than in court," they stated.
Court records show that Flores and Benavides were arrested last Friday and subsequently released. The preliminary hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Tuesday (Eastern Time) before Magistrate Judge Zia Farouki ( Zia Faruqui ).
"We have requested that during today's court hearing, statements be made regarding this shocking government action towards this meritorious public official," Flores' legal team wrote.
Before the hearing, lawyers submitted a motion requesting the court to dismiss this supplementary criminal complaint, stating that it contained legal defects and that it was submitted with malice.
"This represents a serious abuse of the criminal prosecution process, an disturbing disregard for the judicial safeguards that initiate a proper criminal procedure, and a deliberate attempt to circumvent judicial review by avoiding confrontational examinations of the government's charges at the scheduled preliminary hearings," the motion states.
This indicates a blatant disregard for a fundamental principle of our country's criminal justice system: the presumption of innocence. It also reflects a worrying disregard for the obligation of prosecutors not to exacerbate the defendant's stigmatization.
Bennavides' lawyer and Piro's office did not immediately respond to requests for comments regarding CNBC.
This is news that is being dynamically updated. Please check for the latest developments later.
