Judge Throws Out Charges Against Former F.B.I. Officials

A federal magistrate judge threw out charges against two former F.B.I. intelligence officials accused of lying to Congress on Monday, saying that prosecutors had failed in one of their most basic responsibilities: They had not shown there was any probable cause that crimes had been committed in the first place.

In an emotional, hourlong address from the bench in Federal District Court in Washington, the magistrate judge, Zia M. Faruqui, said that the case against the former officials — Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides — was a rushed, political prosecution ordered by the White House intended to affect the upcoming midterm elections. Two weeks ago, the administration charged the former officials with falsely minimizing their work on investigations involving Hunter Biden, the son of the former president.

Judge Faruqui excoriated the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington for how it handled the case, admonishing prosecutors for trying to avoid some of the fundamental checks and balances of the criminal justice system. At the same, he apologized directly to Ms. Floris and Mr. Benavides for having been “dragged through the process” of being charged by the same federal government they had admirably served for decades.

“I am deeply troubled by what happened here in the case,” Judge Faruqui said. “What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization.”

The dismissal of the charges was the Justice Department’s latest failure to follow through on President Trump’s relentless demands to take revenge against a long list of people who have run afoul of him. In recent months, both judges and grand juries have repeatedly rejected the department’s attempts to prosecute the president’s enemies in a growing — and humiliating — series of legal defeats.

From the outset, the case against Ms. Floris and Mr. Benavides was a particularly bitter one, embodying a battle that has raged for nearly two years between the F.B.I.’s current leadership and the scores of agents who have been purged from the bureau because of their supposed disloyalty to Mr. Trump.

---

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

---

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.