By Aldgra Fredly
Contributing Writer
Audio recordings of former President Joe Biden’s interviews with a ghostwriter, which the Department of Justice obtained during its 2023 investigation into his handling of classified information, have been made public.
The Oversight Project, a legal advocacy arm of conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, released the recordings on Monday after a federal appeals court dissolved its temporary administrative injunction that had blocked their disclosure.
Biden had attempted to block the release but dropped his lawsuit against the DOJ last week.
The recordings capture Biden’s private conversations with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer in Biden’s home between 2016 and 2017 as they worked on his memoir titled “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.”
In one recording dated April 24, 2017, the two appear to discuss some notes Biden kept from his vice presidency, and Biden can be heard saying, “Some of this may be classified, so be careful. I’m not sure. It’s not marked classified.” Portions of the released audio were redacted.
In another recording dated Feb, 16, 2017, Biden can be heard saying, “I just found all the classified stuff downstairs.” He went on to say that he wrote a 40-page memorandum to then-President Barack Obama arguing against deploying additional troops to Afghanistan.
The recordings also include several instances where Biden seemed to have difficulty remembering things. In one recording dated April 24, 2017, he told the writer, “I was going to ask you something else. … Oh gosh. I can’t think what it is.”
The DOJ obtained the materials in 2023 as part of former special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified information after his vice presidency.
The probe concluded in 2024, finding that Biden had willfully retained classified materials, although no criminal charges were pursued.
Hur said at the time that the evidence fell short of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. He characterized Biden as having “diminished faculties” and a “poor memory.”
Hur noted that it would be “difficult to convince a jury that they should convict [Biden] — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
The Heritage Foundation and the House Judiciary Committee sought the records through a Freedom of Information Act request. The DOJ initially withheld the materials under the Biden administration, prompting the group to sue the department in 2024.
A federal judge ruled in favor of The Heritage Foundation in June, finding that the case involves “an unusually strong public interest” in the release of law enforcement materials but stayed the order to allow Biden to appeal.
Biden subsequently dropped his legal challenge to block the release on Monday after an appeals court on July 20 upheld the lower court’s ruling.
The former president’s legal team did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Jeff Clark, vice president of litigation for Oversight Project, issued a statement following the release of the recordings, calling for “a thorough reexamination” of Hur’s recommendation.
“On the tapes (in audio gaps/transcript redactions), Biden clearly gives away secret after secret to someone not authorized to hold such secrets,” Clark said. “Americans want to see accountability.”
Troy Myers contributed to this report.
