"In the not-too-distant past, most people probably would have at least grudgingly accepted a regime in which prosecutors and law-enforcement agents sorted through materials from a sprawling investigation..."

"... and made public only those portions needed to properly handle a case. The additional information that might interest us, and perhaps even help improve society, would remain secret. Federal prosecutors could generally be trusted to focus on their narrow criminal enforcement mission and to not abuse the tools given them for that limited purpose. No longer.... [S]o much of the raw investigative material in [the files] — untold layers of hearsay, unverified accusations and vague circumstantial connections — ought not be released for the public to pick over.... When materials collected in a criminal investigation get released in bulk for public consumption, the justification for the coercive and privacy-invading tools we give investigators gets a lot weaker...."

Writes former federal prosecutor Daniel Richman, in "The Epstein Files Should Never Have Been Released" (NYT).