Ben Twining

Via @AP Shadow Government Criminal Complaint Dismissed “What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said - Ruling from the bench dismissed the criminal complaint against former senior FBI officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides - Called the charges rushed, overtly political and dogged by “critical mistakes.” - DOJ alleged Floris and Benavides lied to Congress about their knowledge of the Hunter Biden probe before the 2020 presidential election - The dismissal does not permanently bar prosecution - DOJ may still present the case to a grand jury for indictment against Floris and Benavides. - However, Washington D.C. grand juries traditionally lean heavily Democrat NOTE: Internal FBI insta-messages and emails leading up to the 2020 election were at the heart of the government's criminal complaint. In the declassified FBI chat messages, Floris wrote, “I’m basically running a shadow government across the FBI at this point.” Both Floris and Benavides held senior positions on the now-disbanded FBI Foreign Influence Task Force, or FITF. Their job was to identify and analyze influence operations by America’s adversaries, often carried out on social media and meant to further divide Americans as well as undermine trust in democratic institutions. In reality, it appears Floris and her colleagues were not investigating whether the online allegations of corruption against the Bidens were true. Instead, members of the Foreign Influence Task Force are accused of suppressing or manipulating the anti-Biden corruption narrative as well as making false statements to Congress. Previously, lawyers for Benavides and Floris have called their clients “patriots” and characterized the charges as a “disgrace.”