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So far, little new in Marathon bombing files
By Milton J. Valencia
Globe Staff

Dozens of documents in the case of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have been unsealed as part of a court order that will eventually make public hundreds of previously secret records. However, little new information had been revealed as of Wednesday evening.

The released documents include previously unreported tidbits such as a Medicaid card found in Tsarnaev’s college dorm room; already documented descriptions of Tsarnaev’s interaction with authorities after his arrest; and prosecutors’ objections to the testimony of a well-known Catholic nun.

The clerk’s office continues to unseal the dozens of documents identified in the court order, and later filings could shed light on other aspects of the case, including the suspected involvement of Tsarnaev’s older brother in an unsolved triple homicide in Waltham, and details of the process to select a jury in the death penalty trial.

US District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. had sealed the records in preparation for and during Tsarnaev’s trial. But he ordered lawyers and prosecutors to agree on which records to release to the public, and both parties agreed on more than 600 filings, listed in a 24-page document released Tuesday.

Many of the records in the case remain sealed, including jurors’ identities and transcripts of the jury selection proceedings. Multiple news media outlets, including The Boston Globe, have sought the release of those documents.

Many of the records that were unsealed Wednesday were minor attachments to documents that had already been public, such as the disclosure that Tsarnaev thought his brother was still alive on the first day after his arrest. That document was released in 2014.

Tsarnaev, 22, is being held at the federal supermax prison in Colorado while he appeals his death sentence, for his role in the April 15, 2013, bombings. Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured. His older brother, Tamerlan, was killed during a firefight with police in Watertown.

Milton J. Valencia can be reached at MValencia@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MiltonValencia.