albaby1,

There could be internal DOJ rules, customs, procedures, etc., written or unwritten, in terms of maintaining confidentiality of active case files, or if the case is on appeal. There could be a duty to maintain confidentiality of sensitive records even in closed case files.

I'm not saying there is or isn't, and I'm no defender of Biden or Merrick Garland.

I'm just saying there are probably a whole bunch of very good reasons at least in the general case, where the DOJ simply defaults to maintaining confidentiality of criminal case records.

Obviously anything that is actually filed with the court in the case (unless filed under seal) is going to be public record.

But most of the case file material is likely never filed in the court record. Even Brady material which is provided to the defense counsel during post-indictment discovery wouldn't necessarily be considered fair game for public disclosure.

I'm not sure why anything involving investigations into Epstein, Maxwell, or anyone associated with them should or would be treated any differently (if not for purely political reasons).

From a purely criminal justice standpoint all of these kinds of records should be regarded as "confidential." Not necessarily "secret" like grand jury records, just "confidential."

The purpose of the DOJ accumulating these records is for prosecuting crimes, not for politics.

Again, I'm no defender of Biden at all but it's not a very good precedent to be releasing thousands of pages of emails, files, what have you, of "raw" investigatory materials.