A judge in Washington on Tuesday threw out a late-night Justice Department filing that sought a new obstruction charge against former FBI officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides. ABC News, Fox News and CBS News reported the ruling. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said the unsigned, unsworn complaint went onto the public docket with no judge first finding probable cause.

"I think they should have filed nothing," Faruqui said, per ABC News, Fox News and CBS News. He said unsigned complaints that wait for a probable-cause finding are improper and hurt the accused. He was upset to get the papers overnight. He was more upset that they sat on the public record. Fox News and CBS News said he struck or rejected the new complaint so the hearing could move on the first charge sheet.

Prosecutor John Borchert of the US Attorney's Office in Washington said the government is "not afraid of a probable cause finding." Defense lawyers for Floris called the overnight filing a "serious abuse" of how charges are brought. They said it was a bid to dodge court review. Floris and Benavides deny the charges. Her team said that in decades at the Justice Department they had never seen a public charge filed without a grand jury, a judge or the accused signing off.

Friday's complaint says the two lied to Congress in 2023 about what they knew of FBI Foreign Influence Task Force work tied to Hunter Biden probes before the 2020 election. Faruqui had already asked why such old facts were charged by complaint instead of indictment. On Tuesday he asked why this case alone changed how prosecutors charge. The first false-statements complaint stays before the court. As of the reports, no probable-cause ruling on that complaint had issued. CBS News said the hearing was set to continue on Wednesday.

What we know: Faruqui struck the overnight new complaint that added obstruction, saying it skipped judicial review, and the original false-statements case went to a probable-cause hearing.
What we don't: Whether the original complaint meets probable cause, whether prosecutors will refile obstruction the right way, or what later filings will say about the timing near the midterms.