华盛顿一名联邦法官周一驳回了针对两名前联邦调查局（FBI）官员的刑事指控，这两名官员被指控虚假淡化他们对司法部称属于亨特·拜登的一台笔记本电脑的知情程度。
A federal judge in Washington has dismissed a criminal complaint against two former FBI officials accused of falsely downplaying their knowledge of a laptop the Justice Department says was Hunter Biden's.
埃里克·塔克 华盛顿 —— 美国联邦治安法官扎伊亚·法鲁基周一驳回了针对两名前联邦调查局官员的刑事指控，这两名官员被指控虚假淡化他们对司法部称属于亨特·拜登的一台笔记本电脑的知情程度。
ERIC TUCKER WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday dismissed a criminal complaint against two former FBI officials accused of falsely downplaying their knowledge of a laptop the Justice Department says belonged to Hunter Biden.
法鲁基法官作出这一决定之前，举行了一场戏剧性的听证会，他在会上斥责检察官的非常规做法，一名负责该案的联邦调查局特工作证称，他曾担心该调查会被视为“政治性的”。司法部仍可能有机会寻求大陪审团起诉这两名前官员——妮基·弗洛里斯和布拉德利·贝纳维德斯，他们的律师曾推动驳回指控。但法官的裁决无疑代表了司法部的一个明显挫折，特别是考虑到司法部在说服首都的大陪审团在像这样的政治敏感起诉中发回起诉书方面遇到的困难。
The decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui followed a dramatic hearing in which he scolded prosecutors for their unorthodox maneuvers and an FBI agent who worked the case testified that he had been concerned the investigation would be seen as “political.”The Justice Department may still have an opportunity to pursue a grand jury indictment against the two former officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, whose lawyers had pressed for dismissal of the charges But the judge’s ruling nonetheless represents an unmistakable setback for the Justice Department, particularly given the difficulty it has had in persuading grand juries in the nation’s capital to return indictments in politically charged prosecutions like this one.
法官对该案的担忧几乎立即显现出来，当时他质疑司法部为何通过刑事指控书提起此案——这通常是在调查人员有紧迫需要将被告拘捕时采取的做法——而不是通过需要大陪审团批准的起诉书。
The judge’s concerns about the case were apparent almost immediately, when he raised questions about why the Justice Department had charged the case through a criminal complaint — which is more typically done when investigators have a pressing need to take a defendant into custody — as opposed to an indictment that requires a grand jury’s approval.
随后，在上周的初步听证会上，他批评司法部在夜间提交了一份包含额外刑事指控的修正指控书直接存入案卷，而没有先将新指控提交法院过目——他表示这还是他头一回见到这种做法。
Then, at a preliminary hearing last week, he criticized the Justice Department for filing overnight an amended complaint with an additional criminal charge straight to the docket instead of first clearing the new charge with the court — something he said he had never seen before.
听证会还听取了负责此案的一名联邦调查局特工的证词，该特工表示，调查是在特朗普总统去年7月发表选举安全演讲几小时后启动的，且是由联邦调查局局长卡什·帕特尔下令进行的，帕特尔对该调查保持密切关注。
The hearing also featured testimony from an FBI agent who worked the case, who said that the investigation had been opened hours after President Donald Trump gave an election security speech last July and that it had been mandated by FBI Director Kash Patel, who kept close watch on it.
该案指控两名前联邦调查局官员在2023年向国会作证时，就他们参与和知情调查一台笔记本电脑的情况误导国会。司法部称，这台笔记本电脑是前总统乔·拜登之子亨特·拜登于2019年送至特拉华州一家电脑维修店的。
The case accused the two former FBI officials of misleading Congress in 2023 about their involvement in, and knowledge of, efforts to investigate a laptop the Justice Department says was dropped off by Hunter Biden, former President Joe Biden’s son, at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019.
但该案也试图呼应特朗普及其共和党盟友长期以来的不满，即联邦调查局在2020年总统竞选期间试图压制被视为可能对拜登家族不利的信息。民主党候选人乔·拜登最终在2020年大选中击败了共和党现任总统特朗普。
But it also sought to echo longstanding grievances by Trump and his Republican allies that the FBI attempted to suppress information during the 2020 presidential campaign that was seen as potentially harmful to the Biden family. Candidate Joe Biden, a Democrat, ultimately defeated Trump the Republican incumbent, in the 2020 election.
司法部的起诉书指出，例如，弗洛里斯和贝纳维德斯曾在2020年向议员们进行过一次“防御性简报”，爱荷华州共和党参议员查克·格拉斯利和威斯康星州共和党参议员罗恩·约翰逊称，该简报被用来破坏他们对拜登政府的调查，并将其与俄罗斯虚假信息联系起来。
The Justice Department’s case noted, for instance, how Floris and Benavides had given lawmakers in 2020 a “defensive briefing” that Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin have said was used to undermine their investigation into the Biden administration and link it to Russian disinformation.