>Portions of the videotape contain sensitive information
>never released that could be damaging to the nearly
>6-year-old investigation, Beckner said.
Don't you understand 'newspeak'?
If a civil servant gets an appraisal of 'superior performance' the supervisor actually means 'I don't want to spend endless hours appealing the disgruntled gold-bricker's complaints, I am passing him on to become someone else's problem'.

"could be damaging to the investigation" means 'I don't like anybody looking over my shoulder and telling me I'm doing a lousy job, so anything, no matter how innocuous, that sheds any light on the files could be damaging to the investigation, so go away and let me eat my donuts in peace and quiet without some nosy do-gooder trying to tell me how to run my department'.