The courtroom scene was almost theatrical in its symbolism: two career FBI officials embracing in tears while a phalanx of former bureau chiefs — including a former acting director — formed a human shield behind them. But the theater masked a structural rupture. When Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui dismissed the criminal complaint against Nicole Floris and Bradley Benavides on Monday, he did not merely reject a prosecution. He exposed the machinery of its making: a criminal complaint filed without grand jury review, a midnight superseding complaint unsigned and unsworn, an FBI agent testifying under oath that the case “had not been handled like any other in his career” because it was opened “at the behest” of political leadership. The message was not written in the dismissal order. It was written in the procedural desperation that preceded it. The Signal Most coverage has framed this as a victory for the defendants or a...