U.S. Politics · Courts · 32 outlets (L 9 · C 10 · R 10 · 3 not rated)
Judge tosses case against ex-FBI officials accused of lying about Biden laptop
A federal magistrate 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.[21] The Hill reported that Judge Zia Faruqui found no probable cause to support the charges and identified one of the officials as Nikki Floris.[19] The officials were accused of lying to Congress about their involvement in the federal investigation into Hunter Biden's laptop.[19]
Yahoo News reported that at a hearing, Faruqui scolded prosecutors for their unorthodox maneuvers and an FBI agent who worked on the case.[21] The New York Times reported that Faruqui called the case a rushed, political prosecution ordered by the White House intended to affect the upcoming midterm elections.[10] The New York Post reported that Faruqui said the case "cannot be described as anything other than weaponization" of the Justice Department.[25]
Covered by The New York Times, NBC News, The Wall Street Journal and 29 more
Read first Federal judge dismisses case against ex-FBI officials accused of lying about Biden laptop probe
How balanced is this coverage?
Of the 29 rated outlets that covered it, 9 are left of center, 10 are center and 10 are right of center (8 of them in the Right group). 3 more are not rated.
- Left: none.
- Leans left: AlterNet (−1.16), The New Republic (−1.09), HuffPost (−1.06), Raw Story (−0.94), MS NOW (−0.76), The New York Times (−0.70), The Guardian (−0.70), NPR (−0.68), The Daily Beast (−0.64).
- Center: NBC News (−0.49), PBS NewsHour (−0.48), ABC News (−0.19), CBS News (−0.14), Mediaite (+0.04), Roll Call (+0.04), Yahoo News (+0.07), The Hill (+0.10), UPI (+0.17), CNBC (+0.40).
- Leans right: The Wall Street Journal (+0.63), New York Post (+0.64).
- Right: The Washington Times (+1.27), Washington Examiner (+1.34), Fox News (+1.52), Twitchy (+1.58), Blaze Media (+1.71), The Western Journal (+2.13), Conservative Review (+2.76), The Right Scoop (+3.11).
Not rated Los Angeles Times, NewsNation, Al Jazeera. Not placed: they have no lean score.
Each dot is an outlet that covered it, placed by its audience-lean score (Eady et al. 2025), which measures who shares its links, not how accurate it is. The ticks under the line are all 113 rated outlets Tare reads.