Donald Trump’s Justice Department suffered the latest in a series of defeats on Monday morning, as U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui threw out criminal charges against two former FBI officials who had been charged with lying to Congress about the bureau’s Hunter Biden investigation.

The federal judge, who spoke from the bench for nearly an hour, condemned prosecutors for having pursued a political agenda and having made “critical mistakes” in the “slapdash” case. Faruqui added, “What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization.”

It was just two weeks ago, amid a flurry of DOJ efforts to target people whom the incumbent president doesn’t like, when prosecutors filed charges against Nikki Floris, the former deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, and Bradley Benavides, another FBI official, who had briefed members of Congress about the contents of Biden’s laptop years earlier. Trump’s DOJ specifically charged them with allegedly making false statements about their level of involvement in the investigation.

Their attorneys condemned the charges as political “nonsense” announced 10 days before closely watched elections, and it didn’t help matters that the president told reporters after their arrest, “I heard they were bad people” — without saying from whom he had heard this.

The case struggled almost immediately. After prosecutors added an obstruction charge, for example, the federal judge dismissed that. Now, Faruqui has dismissed the criminal complaint altogether.

The rejection of the case came on the heels of striking testimony from Bryan Witt, a veteran FBI agent, who testified last week about what transpired behind the scenes, specifically shining a light on FBI Director Kash Patel’s role in initiating the case in response to one of Trump’s speeches.

No one from the White House, FBI or DOJ has commented on the latest development yet, which represents the latest in a series of humiliations for federal law enforcement in the Trump era.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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