Judge Tosses Charges Against Two Ex-FBI Officials, Citing 'Weaponization' of the Justice Department

A federal judge in Washington has dismissed a criminal complaint against two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about Hunter Biden, citing what he calls the weaponization of President Donald Trump's Justice Department, the Associated Press reported Monday.

The judge said the investigation that produced the charges was overtly political, according to the AP. The dismissal does not end the matter outright: the Justice Department may still have an opportunity to pursue a grand jury indictment against the former officials, the AP reported.

The case accused the two former officials of misleading Congress about their knowledge of efforts to investigate a laptop that the Justice Department says was dropped off by Joe Biden's son at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019. The AP noted that the case sought to echo grievances by Trump and his Republican allies, who have argued for years that the bureau treated the laptop, and the Biden family, with political favoritism.

Monday's ruling flips that argument in a courtroom: it is now a federal judge, in a filed decision, describing a prosecution brought under Trump's Justice Department as the political act. The word the judge used — weaponization — is the same word each side of Washington's long argument over the FBI and the Justice Department has aimed at the other, which is part of why the ruling will travel far beyond the two defendants it directly affects.

The dismissal landed in the last hours of the midterm campaign, on a day when control of Congress — and with it, control of the committees that oversee the FBI and the Justice Department — was about to be decided at the polls. Whoever wins Tuesday will inherit this ruling as an exhibit in the oversight fights of the next two years.