Former president seeks to prevent disclosure of roughly 70 hours of recordings and transcripts from 2016-2017 interviews with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer.
6:20 PM
Former President Joe Biden filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to block the Justice Department from releasing audio files and transcripts related to interviews he conducted with biographer Mark Zwonitzer.
The lawsuit targets approximately 70 hours of audio files and transcripts from interviews conducted in 2016 and 2017 that were used for Biden's 2017 memoir "Promise Me, Dad." Biden and his attorneys have maintained that the materials are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
The recordings and transcripts became central to a special counsel investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents. Special Counsel Robert Hur obtained the files and used them as part of his inquiry. Hur also conducted a separate five-hour interview with Biden himself before concluding his investigation in a 2024 report.
The Justice Department has faced multiple Freedom of Information Act lawsuits attempting to unseal the materials. At least three separate FOIA lawsuits have been filed seeking their release, including one involving the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. In that case, attorneys for the Justice Department previously addressed the matter in federal court.
Biden's lawsuit argues that disclosure of the recordings would violate his privacy. The former president contends that the materials should remain protected from public release under applicable exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act.
The House Judiciary Committee has sought access to the audio files and transcripts as part of its oversight activities. The timing of Biden's legal action comes as the materials have remained at the center of ongoing disputes over transparency and executive privilege.
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