Ex-FBI agents fighting charges accusing them of lying about Hunter Biden probe
Judge’s gavel (Getty Images stock photo)
Attorneys for two former FBI agents charged with lying to Congress about past probes of Hunter Biden are back in court Wednesday seeking to convince a magistrate judge to immediately dismiss their case, citing a lack of evidence and alleged prosecutorial misconduct.
In a marathon hearing Tuesday, magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui lambasted the conduct of federal prosecutors, striking from the record a superseding complaint they attempted to file in the case because it lacked proper signoff from a judge.
Faruqui said the growing record of “inappropriate” actions by the government was “throwing enormous amounts of gasoline onto this fire,” which supported arguments from lawyers for former agents Nikki Floris and Brian Benavides that the charges against them were politically motivated.
“And so everything you’re doing just is making me more and more concerned that there’s something to that,” Faruqui told DOJ prosecutors.
The Justice Department on Friday charged Floris and Bradley with allegedly making false statements to Congress stemming from a probe into whether investigators in the lead-up to the 2020 election sought to suppress or discredit the veracity of material on the laptop of former President Joe Biden’s son that included embarrassing photos and videos.
Under cross-examination by attorneys for Floris and Benavides, FBI agent Bryan Witt, who was tasked with investigating their clients, disclosed that the genesis for the entire case was President Donald Trump’s July speech that centered around unverified claims of fraud in past U.S. elections.
Witt said that following the speech, FBI Director Kash Patel personally assigned the investigation of a list of former agents, including Floris and Benavides, to the FBI’s Kansas City field office.
Witt, who conceded that the sequence of events was unusual, further testified that the office received regular check-ins from FBI leadership on the status of their probe.
At the start of Wednesday’s hearing, a DOJ attorney sought to object to a line of questioning related to Trump and Patel’s personal involvement in initiating the investigation.
Faruqui seemed skeptical of the objection, saying that the testimony appeared to be directly relevant to his eventual determination of whether there is sufficient probable cause for the charges.
“It’s not typical that the president of the United States says go investigate people,” Faruqui said. “So that seems to squarely fit within an investigation to the reasonableness of the basis for the charge.”
A 2-year-old girl has died after being left in a hot minivan while in the care of a babysitter, police in Florida said.
Officers found the little girl when they responded to a home around 1:35 p.m. Sunday in Hallandale Beach, about 20 miles north of Miami, Hallandale Beach police said.
The heat index – what the temperature it feels like with humidity – soared to 101 degrees on Sunday in Hallandale Beach.
The 2-year-old was taken to a hospital and later declared dead, authorities said.
It’s not clear how long she was in the car. Police said prosecutors are reviewing the case and “no charging decision has been made at this time.”
“This is a heartbreaking loss, and our thoughts are with the child’s family, and everyone affected by this tragedy,” the Hallandale Beach Police Department said in a statement. “We also want to use this moment to remind every parent, guardian, and caregiver in our community: Always check the back seat before locking your vehicle and walking away.”
This is at least the 10th child to die in a hot car in the U.S. this year, according to national nonprofit KidsAndCars.org. Last year, at least 37 children died in hot cars across the country, KidsAndCars.org said.
Click here for what to know to keep your children safe from hot car dangers.
Former president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama speak with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts at the Obama Presidential Center on June 13, 2026. (Michael Le Brecht IL/ABC News)
(CHICAGO) — For former President Barack Obama and former first Lady Michelle Obama, the opening of the Obama Presidential Center Friday is the culmination of their shared journey from Chicago’s South Side to the White House.
In their first joint network TV interview since leaving office in 2017, the couple reflected on their accomplishments in their eight years in the White House and the hope they have for the country ahead.
“People are a little discouraged right now,” Barack Obama told ABC News’ Robin Roberts in an interview that aired Wednesday on “Good Morning America.” “But, again, I believe that we go through these cycles, and there’s going to be a younger generation that pops up and there are going to be leaders who pop up.”
The former president said since leaving office, he has largely refrained from inserting himself too much into public policy debates as he sees himself these days as less of a “player” and more of a “coach” for the new generation of leaders.
“You pick and choose your spots. I’m not suggesting I’ve done it perfectly,” he said, going on to cite the example of how George Washington stepped away from politics after his time in office.
“He kind of said, ‘All right, I’ve done my stint. And now I’m going, you know, back home,'” Barack Obama said of the nation’s first president. “I think Michelle, you know, very much would prefer a quieter life for us. And on the other hand, there’ve been some folks who would like to see me out every day, right, banging the drum.”
With the Obama Presidential Center, part of the hope, he said, is to “encourage the next generation of leadership.”
The center’s campus encompasses 19 acres in Chicago’s Jackson Park, just steps from the University of Chicago. At a cost of $850 million, it includes 3.7 acres of parkland, offices for the Obama Foundation, an auditorium for public events, public art and athletic facilities, and a new branch of the Chicago Public Library.
In collaboration with the National Archives and Records Administration, the Obama presidential archives are fully digital.
The center’s centerpiece is a four-story museum that places the Obama years within a greater context of social change, starting with the Declaration of Independence and spanning the civil rights and labor movements, as well as the grassroots political movement in Chicago that led to Barack Obama’s political ascent.
Obama on his greatest accomplishment in office When asked by Roberts what he considers the greatest accomplishment of his two terms in office, Barack Obama cited the passage of the Affordable Care Act in March 2010, which expanded Medicaid, provided greater consumer protections, and lowered health insurance costs, especially for households at or below the federal poverty level.
He said the legislation continues to show that his administration represented all of America.
“For all the resistance from our political opposition, the Affordable Care Act has now helped 50, 60 million people, and continues to help people even though the current Congress has tried to weaken it and taken away some of the subsidies that were really helping a lot of working people,” the former president said. “I’m very proud of the message we sent to the country that we’re representing everybody.”
In addition to his legislative accomplishments, museum also tells the story of Barack Obama’s political ascendancy and how the core messages of “hope” and “change” were critical to his campaign for his first term.
Despite the harsh partisanship of today’s political culture, Michelle Obama said those messages are still possible.
“People just have to be fed up enough. They have to want more,” she said. “And I think the presidential center hopefully will remind people of just how close we are to moving this country in the direction that we want to move it in.”
Michelle Obama said an exhibit in the center that reflects on the Obamas’ position as the first Black first family in the history of America reflects that.
“You have one exhibit where people thought that it could never happen, that a Black man, a Black family would never live in the White House. That America would never accept that,” she said. “And lo and behold, the whole country, you know, the vast majority of the country believe differently.”
Amid the museum’s focus on the promise of democracy, Barack Obama said Americans, in times of disagreement, can focus on making their voice heard with their vote.
“The premise of this country is everybody gets a right to say, ‘No, I don’t agree with that. I challenge that. No, Obama, I think you’re making a mistake,’ you know?” he said. “And then we have a conversation about it, and then it gets settled in an election. And if enough people decide I didn’t know what I was doing, then you move on to the next person.”
Tune into the ABC News special “The Obama Legacy: First Joint Interview Post-White House,” streaming Thursday, June 18, on Disney+ and Hulu.
The Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of ABC News.
