US President Donald Trump speaks during a visit to Peterbilt Motors in Denton, Texas, US, October 1, 2026.
A Tuesday hearing about two former FBI agents unfolded well into the afternoon as one of the agents' attorneys asked how the investigation began. What the defense lawyer discovered is that it came straight from the White House.
Former FBI agents Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides were charged last week by the district attorney's office, alleging that they lied to Congress about Hunter Biden's laptop. The hearing quickly became a "probable-cause hearing" to determine whether the Justice Department had the evidence it claimed in its court complaint against the former FBI agents.
Lawfare's Anna Bower captured the proceeding, live-posting about it online.
During questioning, Floris' defense attorney, Margaret Donovan, asked FBI Special Agent Bryan Witt where the case came from.
"Director [Kash] Patel directed the investigation. A July letter referenced several potential crimes, including 18 USC 1512, which is witness tampering, victim and informant intimidation and obstruction of official proceedings.
Patel "directed you to investigate Floris?" Donovan asked for confirmation.
Witt explained that the directive was handed down in July, and given to the Kansas City FBI office.
"I was assigned through chain of command," Witt added.
"Is that normally how investigations play out?" Donovan asked.
"I've not had a tasking from a director in my career," Witt said. He agreed that it was "unusual."
"We talked about how this was unusual. Direction was basically to find evidence of crimes of one person before you ever investigated?" Donovan asked.
Witt explained it began as "multiple people besides Floris. He opened it up to other people. And president Trump the night before I got this letter had made an announcement."
The announcement from Trump he's referencing comes from the July 17 speech in which the president alleged, again, that the 2020 election was stolen from him. CNN's full annotated transcript of Trump's remarks doesn't mention Hunter Biden or the laptop.
"The FBI agents working on the case believe that crimes were committed, yet the Biden Department of Justice slow-walked the investigation and killed it," Trump claimed without evidence. "Tonight, I'm asking the FBI director to ensure that the matter is fully investigated and to work with the Department of Justice to prosecute those responsible for any crimes."
Witt confessed that he had concerns that the investigation would be a distraction from other cases and that it would be viewed as "political." Especially because of the speech Trump delivered the night before.
"What I'm trying to connect here is that we're talking about Floris being unpopular with the president because she discredited something that's one of the president's theories about the 2020 election," Donovan said.
The DOJ objected and Witt said he wouldn't presume to speak for the president.
She asked Witt if he ever referred to it as a "witch hunt."
"I don't know...I don't believe so. Think people could've been saying that around the office. It was a concern that this would become very controversial," Witt said. "The tasking I was given was to investigate alleged crimes committed by Floris and others."
Donovan said her point was that the crimes Witt was initially tasked with investigating later shifted to other crimes.
"Witt concedes that's correct," Anna Bower reported from the trial.
The investigation shifted to congressional testimony, but Witt said he wasn't certain when.
The case began when the judge questioned the Justice Department about why it was moving forward without a grand jury indictment. Criminal indictments typically come from grand juries, but District Attorney Jeanine Pirro has struggled with that. As a February Politico report explained, her office has failed to secure indictments in "dozens" of cases. This appeared to be an attempt at a workaround.
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