A federal judge on Monday blasted the Department of Justice for "weaponization" as he dismissed its case accusing two former FBI officials of lying to Congress about investigations into Hunter Biden, multiple news outlets reported.
Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui, in a hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington, reportedly tore into the DOJ over its "slapdash job" prosecuting ex-officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, saying he was "deeply troubled by what has happened here."
Faruqui said the government lacked probable cause and failed to present evidence that the officials' statements before the House Judiciary Committee in 2023 were knowingly false, MS NOW reported.
He also accused the DOJ of wrongly rushing the case ahead of the midterm election. The situation "cannot be described as anything other than weaponization," he said, according to MS NOW.
The judge even apologized to the government's lawyers, calling it "incredibly unfair" that they were assigned to defend the flawed case.