A federal appeals court has rejected former President Joe Biden's attempt to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts from interviews with his ghostwriter, which were utilized in Special Counsel Robert Hur's investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents.
The divided ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court stated that Biden's privacy claims did not outweigh the "substantial" public interest in the materials. The court has suspended its decision until August 3 to allow Biden time to consider further action.
Biden met with author Mark Zwonitzer, who ghostwrote his 2017 memoir "Promise Me Dad," multiple times after his vice presidency. These interviews became part of Hur's investigation, during which the special counsel noted Biden exhibited "diminished faculties and faulty memory," struggling to recall events during "painfully slow" conversations.
Hur ultimately declined to prosecute Biden, citing in part the belief that the president would appear as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" to a jury.
The Heritage Foundation initially filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in March 2024 seeking the transcripts and recordings, arguing they are personal property and not subject to FOIA. The appeals court panel rejected this argument, determining that the materials became subject to FOIA's disclosure mandate once the Special Counsel obtained them during the investigation.
The court also found that Biden had not provided sufficient evidence of irreparable harm from the material's release. The majority opinion, authored by Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Judge Gregory Katsas, concluded that "any remaining incursion on personal privacy from disclosure of the now-redacted materials likely does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure."
Judge Florence Pan, the sole Biden appointee on the panel, dissented, asserting that Biden demonstrated a "substantial privacy interest" in keeping the recordings and transcripts confidential, noting the conversations occurred in his home and the recordings were obtained during a criminal investigation that did not result in an indictment.
