A federal judge in New York on Wednesday refused to order the release of hundreds of documents concerning the use of enhanced interrogation techniques by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, weighing whether to punish the CIA for having destroyed videotapes of interrogation sessions, said he was deferring to the judgment of the director of the CIA that the release of documents related to the interrogations would hurt the agency’s ability to gather intelligence in the field.