“Because there must be some explainable reason to ‘redact’just in case an inquiring mind wants to know.

“If you’ve worked on any document that has been reviewed by ‘higher ups’or other interested parties who do not have the responsibility to produce the document itself, you’ve seen how these things play out.”

In my experience, the way you handle this is to photocopy the original, make redactions on the copy and provide the redacted copy to the requesting party.

Then, if there’s an issue, a neutral (judge, mediator) reviews the original in camera and decides whether to release the unredacted material (in whole or in part) to the requestor.