Joe Biden turned to the courts Tuesday to prevent the Justice Department from releasing audio recordings and transcripts from interviews he gave to a ghostwriter as part of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, seeks to block the release of the audio and transcript materials, which Biden’s lawyers tied to interviews conducted at Biden’s home in 2016 and 2017 with Mark Zwonitzer. Biden said the recordings and transcripts were obtained during the criminal investigation handled by Hur.
In court filings described in reporting, Biden’s lawyers said the Justice Department planned to release the materials to Congress and to the Heritage Foundation. They also said the department had previously argued that the records were exempt from disclosure under the public records law.
Biden’s filing argued that providing the audio and transcripts would violate privacy interests. His attorneys wrote that releasing the information would “constitute an unwarranted invasion of President Biden’s privacy,” adding that “Every American, including a sitting or former Vice President, has a right to privacy in the personal conversations he has within his own home.”
Biden’s lawyers further said the Justice Department “bears a particular responsibility to protect” personal information once it is obtained through a criminal investigation. The lawsuit frames the disputed release as disclosing private interview content beyond what Biden’s counsel says the records law should compel.
The materials at the center of the dispute involve interviews with Zwonitzer, who worked with Biden on his memoirs. Hur, after a yearlong investigation, produced a 345-page report that questioned Biden’s age and mental competence but recommended no criminal charges. Hur said there was insufficient evidence to successfully prosecute a case in court.
Biden has also previously fought efforts to make related Hur interview audio public. In 2024, the House voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt after refusing to turn over the audio tied to Hur’s interview, after the White House invoked executive privilege to shield the material from Congress.
Separately, transcripts of five hours of Biden interviews with federal prosecutors were released in 2024. The reporting around that release said Biden was adamant that he treated classified information seriously, while also noting that the transcript included moments where he was fuzzy about dates and details and said he was unfamiliar with the paper trail for some sensitive documents he handled.
The broader political fight around these releases has also been shaped by comparisons drawn between the classified-documents cases involving Biden and former President Donald Trump. Reporting said Republicans argued Biden received a pass by his own Justice Department, while Democrats emphasized Biden’s cooperation and contrasted his case with the criminal case involving Trump over classified documents requested by the National Archives.