You say “transparency,” I say “chilling effect on cooperation of potential witnesses” …

Hey, lawtalking guys (of either gender):

Is this totally standard boilerplate for requesting a sealing order, particularly the bit about witness cooperation and “tailor[ing] evidence”? It just strikes me as an interesting argument, given how much trouble the investigators had in trying to interview candidates and other interested parties. (I’ll type up that bit up later if the OCR fairy doesn’t show up soon.)

GROUNDS FOR SEALING ORDER

I believe the disclosure at this time of the Search Warrant, this Information to Obtain a Search Warrant and the material filed in support of this application, would subvert the ends of justice by compromising the nature and extent of an ongoing investigation. The investigation is proceeding but a considerable amount of work remains to be completed, including interviews of numerous persons of interest to the investigation. I believe that should the information contained in my Information become public knowledge, the ability to carry out the remainder of the investigation would be compromised because:

1. The outline of the investigation and the evidence obtained to date would be known to potential interviewees; and

2. I believe such knowledge would tend to have a chilling effect on cooperation of potential witnesses and could allow interviewees to tailor their evidence to achieve a desired result.

[…]