Former President Joseph R. Biden sued the Justice Department Tuesday to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of private conversations with his memoir ghostwriter.
The recordings, from 2016 and 2017, were obtained by special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Mr. Biden’s handling of classified documents.
In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, the former president’s lawyers said the Justice Department plans to release the materials on June 15 to Congress and the conservative Heritage Foundation, which sought them through the Freedom of Information Act. The department previously argued that such files were exempt from disclosure under the public records law.
The audio recordings and transcripts at issue are of Mr. Biden at home with Mark Zwonitzer, who worked on his two memoirs. Then-special counsel Mr. Hur’s report contains passages that appear to contradict each other — including statements that “the evidence suggests that Mr. Biden did not willfully retain these documents” and “we cannot prove that Mr. Biden retained these classified documents willfully,” alongside language suggesting willful conduct in other parts of the report.
The 2023 investigation into Mr. Biden’s handling of classified documents from his time as a senator and as vice president did not result in criminal charges.
Mr. Hur’s investigation did conclude that Mr. Biden read classified excerpts from his personal notebooks to his ghostwriter. However, he declined to press criminal charges, determining that the then-80-year-old’s documented memory lapses and age during interviews would make it exceptionally difficult for a jury to prove he acted willfully.
“We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” the report reads. Mr. Biden’s cognitive function was a key factor in his stepping down from reelection in 2024.
The Justice Department said The Heritage Foundation’s 2024 request was exempt from the Freedom of Information Act until President Trump took office, but would release the documents to satisfy the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s request for them, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit seeks to invalidate the committee’s request and bar the disclosure of the records.
Mr. Biden’s lawyers argued that their release would “constitute an unwarranted invasion of President Biden’s privacy,” as “every American, including a sitting or former Vice President, has a right to privacy in the personal conversations he has within his own home.
“To date, President Biden has not received an official explanation that reflects the consummation of the Department’s decisionmaking regarding the basis for the Department’s reversal of position,” the lawsuit reads.
The suit also argues that such a release would cause Mr. Biden harm “in the form of costs to respond to the disclosure and other financial losses.” The files were a part of the ghostwriting process for his pre-presidency memoir, “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose,” about his eldest son, Beau Biden, battling and succumbing to brain cancer, and Mr. Biden’s deliberations about whether to seek the presidency in 2016, all while serving as vice president.
Mr. Trump shared a report about his predecessor suing the Justice Department on Truth Social with the caption, “A Crooked Politician!!!”
The lawsuit is not Mr. Biden’s first attempt to shield Hur-related audio — he previously fought the release of recordings from his own interview with the special counsel. The Republican-controlled House voted to hold Mr. Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt in 2024 after he refused to turn over the audio recordings of Mr. Hur’s interview with Mr. Biden.
