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... A judge on Tuesday sharply criticized federal prosecutors for failing to get judicial approval before filing a new criminal complaint overnight against two ex-FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about investigations of Hunter Biden.

Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said he would not sign off on the new complaint, which added a charge of obstruction against Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides in U.S. District Court in Washington.

"I am not going to bless it as a superseding complaint," Faruqui said at a court hearing, after Floris' lawyers filed a motion arguing the new complaint was legally deficient and filed in bad faith.

He told prosecutors that if they wanted to file a superseding complaint, a judge first would have to find probable cause that a crime had been committed, instead of sending him the complaint in the middle of the night and expecting him to sign it.

Faruqui said he did not believe that federal prosecutors had previously sought to file a criminal complaint without a judge's signature.

"It is not our court's practice ... that unsigned complaints are filed in the docket," Faruqui said.

"I'm concerned with your view as to what the law is," the judge told the prosecutors. "Why today, on this one case, have you changed the entire history of how you charge cases?" ...