Two former FBI officials appeared in federal court in Washington on Friday, charged with lying to Congress, CBS News, NPR and the AP reported. Nikki Floris, 46, and Bradley Benavides, 56, each face one count, CBS News said. Both had surrendered Friday, the AP reported.

The charges came in a criminal complaint, not an indictment. That means prosecutors have not yet won an indictment from a grand jury, NPR reported. Both are presumed innocent.

Prosecutors allege Floris lied to the House Judiciary Committee in July 2023 about her role in the Hunter Biden inquiry, CBS News reported. In a September 2023 interview with the panel, Benavides said he learned some details from Wikipedia, the complaint says, according to CBS. The Justice Department says emails show he was in contact with the team working the Hunter Biden inquiry, Fox News reported. Both worked on the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force, according to Fox News and CBS News.

Floris' lawyers called her "a patriot," Fox News, CBS News and the AP reported. "It's no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election," they said, according to Fox News. They added, "we look forward to Nikki's day in court," CBS News reported.

Ron Safer, a lawyer for Benavides, asked for a hearing "as soon as humanly possible," CBS News said. "The alleged conduct happened years ago," he said.

Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said the way the case was charged seemed "strange," CBS News reported. He noted both have "sparkling backgrounds" in law enforcement, NPR said. He turned down a prosecution request to delay the next hearing by two weeks or more and set it for Tuesday, CBS News reported. "This is the Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads," he said, according to CBS.

"No one is above the law," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X, the AP reported. The case was filed 10 days before the November 3 elections, the AP said.

What we know: Floris and Benavides each face one count of lying to Congress, filed by complaint, and are due back in court Tuesday.
What we don't: Whether a grand jury will indict them, or how a judge will rule on probable cause.