There’s something deeply rotten when federal prosecutors are filing unsigned criminal complaints in the dead of night, and U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui just said the quiet part out loud. The same judge who made headlines apologizing to an accused Trump assassin is now taking the Department of Justice to the woodshed over its handling of charges against two former FBI officials. And honestly? He’s not wrong.
Former FBI officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides got arrested last week for allegedly lying to Congress about their roles in the Hunter Biden tax investigation. Standard stuff, right? Except here’s where it gets interesting. Just hours before prosecutors had to actually prove probable cause at a preliminary hearing, the DOJ suddenly filed new charges. Different language. Softer descriptions. And zero judicial approval.
Faruqui didn’t mince words. “I think they should have filed nothing,” he said from the bench. You know what that sounds like? A judge who’s watched the Justice Department treat his courtroom like a fast food drive-through window. The complaint was unsigned, unsworn, and dumped onto the public record while most Americans were sleeping. That’s not how a legitimate prosecution operates. That’s how you operate when you’re scared of scrutiny.
The prosecutor, John Borchert, admitted this was his first rodeo filing charges without judicial review. First time. Think about that for a second. The DOJ has procedures that have worked for decades, protocols that protect defendants and preserve the integrity of our justice system. But on this one case, involving these particular FBI officials and that particular president’s son, they just decided to wing it?
Faruqui asked the question every American should be asking: “Why today on this one case have you changed the entire history of how you charge cases?” He didn’t stop there. “It makes it look like the United States is afraid of me trying to find probable cause.” Afraid is the operative word. Because when you’re confident in your evidence, you don’t play procedural games at midnight.
The language changes between the two complaints tell their own story. Originally, prosecutors claimed Benavides and Floris were at the “center” of activities related to Hunter Biden. The midnight special softened that to merely being “involved in” the work. Floris went from having “scores of conversations” to something considerably less dramatic. Defense attorneys jumped on this immediately, and rightfully so. If your facts are solid, why are you backpedaling on your own characterizations before you’ve even defended them once?
This isn’t just about procedural nitpicking. This goes to the heart of whether we still have equal justice under law or whether we’ve descended into a system where political connections determine how aggressively you get prosecuted. The Biden DOJ spent years protecting Hunter while whistleblowers inside the FBI and IRS came forward with evidence of preferential treatment. Now those same whistleblowers or anyone connected to investigating Hunter face the full weight of federal prosecution, complete with midnight filings designed to dodge judicial oversight.
Faruqui rejected the superseding complaint outright, forcing prosecutors to proceed on their original charges. That’s the right call. You don’t get to circumvent the rules because you’re the government. You don’t get special treatment because the case might embarrass powerful people. Limited government means the government follows its own damn rules, especially when it’s trying to put citizens in prison.
And here’s the uncomfortable truth: if Floris and Benavides actually lied to Congress, prosecute them properly. Present your evidence. Make your case. But if you’re resorting to procedural tricks and unsigned documents filed when judges are asleep, maybe your case isn’t as strong as you’re pretending. Maybe you’re just trying to intimidate anyone who might dare investigate the right people in the future.
The irony of Faruqui being the judge to call this out isn’t lost on anyone. His apology to the accused Trump shooter raised eyebrows across conservative America. But credit where it’s due: he’s defending the process here, and that matters more than politics. A system where prosecutors can file whatever they want whenever they want without judicial approval isn’t a justice system. It’s tyranny with a gavel.
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