Biden Sues DOJ to Block Release of 70 Hours of Biographer Interview Recordings

Former President Joe Biden has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop the Justice Department from releasing roughly 70 hours of audio recordings and accompanying transcripts from interviews he gave to ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer that were used for his 2017 memoir Promise Me, Dad. The interviews, recorded in 2016 and 2017, later became part of a special counsel probe into Biden's handling of classified documents.

What the Lawsuit Says

Filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the complaint asks a judge to block the Justice Department from turning the files over to the House Judiciary Committee and third-party requesters under pending Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation. Biden's attorneys argue the materials are exempt from disclosure under FOIA and note that the president asserted executive privilege over the recordings in 2024 after House Republicans sought access.

Justice Department Response

The Justice Department has told a federal judge it intends to release the recordings, with redactions, to both the House Judiciary Committee and the Heritage Foundation on June 15 unless the court orders otherwise. In a statement responding to Biden's lawsuit, a Justice Department representative accused the former president of seeking to hide recordings that the department says "demonstrate a significant decline in his cognitive abilities as far back as 2016," and said the department would "fight to ensure the American people can hear these recordings and draw their own conclusions."

DOJ Statement: "This is the most transparent Department of Justice in history, and we will fight to ensure the American people can hear these recordings and draw their own conclusions about the former President's mental acuity before he sought the presidency."

Relevant Investigations and Timeline

Classified documents were discovered in late 2022 and early 2023 at Biden's Wilmington, Delaware, home and at his former private office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. In January 2023, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsel Robert Hur to investigate whether Biden had mishandled sensitive materials.

After a roughly year-long inquiry, Hur issued a 345-page report in February 2024 concluding that while Biden "willfully retained and disclosed classified materials" after his vice presidency, there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges. Hur's team interviewed 147 people as part of the investigation, including Biden.

Short excerpts from Biden's interview with Hur were later obtained and published by Axios in May 2025. In February 2026, Biden's lawyers say the Justice Department notified the president it intended to release the full audio and transcripts to FOIA plaintiffs — a change they describe as an unexplained reversal of earlier positions.

Broader Context

The Hur investigation overlapped with a separate classified-documents probe into former President Donald Trump after the Justice Department searched his Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022 and seized documents marked as classified. Trump was federally charged over alleged mishandling of classified materials; those charges were later dismissed by a judge who found issues with the special counsel's appointment. The same judge subsequently barred release of portions of the related report addressing Trump's document handling.

Reactions

Late Tuesday, former President Trump posted a reaction on Truth Social calling Biden a "Crooked Politician" in response to the lawsuit.

Next steps: The court will decide whether to temporarily or permanently block the Justice Department's planned disclosure while the FOIA litigation and privilege claims are resolved.