Two former FBI officials have been charged with making false statements about a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden, according to court documents unsealed on Oct. 23.

Nicole Floris and Bradley Benavides were each charged with lying to Congress because of false statements they made to a congressional committee investigating how the FBI handled its probe into Hunter Biden, according to charging documents dated Oct. 20 and unsealed on Friday.

Floris and Benavides were part of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and involved in the agency’s Hunter Biden probe, including participating in classified briefings and sending messages about information uncovered by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the charging documents said.

Floris told a congressional panel in 2023 that when she helped convey information to the senators in 2020, she did not know they were looking into Hunter Biden.

She said she still did not know that their Senate panels issued a report on their investigation into Hunter Biden in the fall of 2020, that their work did not in any way relate to her FBI position, that she was not involved in the probe, and that there was never a discussion at the task force about Hunter Biden, at least with her present.

In reality, Floris communicated frequently with the team investigating Hunter Biden for more than a year, including sending and receiving information about the subject, the charging documents said, and personally participated in conversations about Hunter Biden, including in writing. She also circulated the report from Johnson and Grassley the morning it was released, the documents said.

Benavides, meanwhile, told the same panel later in 2023 that he did not know about a 2020 New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop until preparing for the testimony several days prior.

He also said he did not know about an FBI investigation into Hunter Biden’s computer until he read Wikipedia in preparation for the appearance, and confirmed that he had no knowledge of the probe as part of his FBI role.

Benavides discussed the New York Post story the same day it was published and was involved in discussions of the Hunter Biden investigation, including with the assistant special agent in charge of the probe, according to documents prosecutors obtained.

“Lying to Congress by senior FBI officials strikes at the heart of our system,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. “No one is above the law.”

Floris and Benavides each face up to five years in prison if convicted.

“Nikki Floris is a patriot. She served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years,” attorneys representing Floris said in a statement.

“Yet today, the [Department of Justice] has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts. It’s no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election.”

Benavides did not have a lawyer listed on the court docket.