A federal appeals court has rejected a request by Joe Biden to prevent the release of audio recordings and transcripts of his interviews with a memoir ghostwriter conducted before he was elected president. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a 2-1 ruling late Monday, finding a substantial public interest in the disclosure of the material Biden sought to keep private.
The panel suspended its decision until August 3 to allow more time for Biden to consider a further appeal. The majority on the court noted that redactions could protect Biden's privacy while still allowing for disclosure.
"We conclude that any remaining incursion on personal privacy from disclosure of the now-redacted materials likely does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure," the court stated in its opinion.
The interviews were conducted in 2016 and 2017 by Mark Zwonitzer, who worked with Biden on two of his memoirs. Biden's legal team has argued that the conversations were candid, personal, and intended to remain private.
Special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Biden's handling of classified documents from his time as a senator and vice president, obtained the recordings. Following Hur's decision not to file charges, Republicans in Congress sought access to the material.
Biden initiated a lawsuit seeking an injunction to prevent the Justice Department, then under the Trump administration, from releasing the recordings to Congress and the conservative Heritage Foundation. The department had previously argued that the recordings were exempt from public records disclosure.
Biden appealed after U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, nominated by then-President Donald Trump, ruled in June that the public interest in the recordings outweighed Biden's privacy rights.
The appeal was heard by D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Judges Gregory Katsas and Florence Pan. Judge Pan, nominated by President Biden, dissented from the majority opinion. Chief Judge Srinivasan was nominated by President Barack Obama, and Judge Katsas was nominated by President Trump.