Biden to fight DOJ's release of ghostwriter tapes
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Former President Biden in Columbia, South Carolina, in February. Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images
Former President Biden is preparing to ask a court to stop the Trump administration from releasing his conversations with his ghostwriter, tapes that played a central role in a classified-documents investigation.
Why it matters: The tapes go to the heart of Special Counsel Robert Hur's damaging conclusions: that Biden read classified notebook passages aloud to ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer and that the former president's memory lapses would make it harder to prove he acted willfully.
For the record: Biden has denied sharing classified information.
Driving the news: In a joint status report filed Friday, the Department of Justice said it intended to disclose the redacted transcripts and audio recordings to Congress and to the Heritage Foundation, which sued for the material under the Freedom of Information Act.
- But Biden "intends to seek to intervene to prevent any such disclosures,"the report said.
- Politico reported earlier Sunday that he intends to fight the release.
Catch up quick: Hur obtained the conversations with Zwonitzer while investigating Biden's handling of classified documents after his vice presidency.
- The special counsel ultimately declined to prosecute Biden but described him as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
- Hur wrote that Biden read journal entries about classified information "nearly verbatim" at least three times, and the recordings capture the former president telling Zwonitzer: "I just found all the classified stuff downstairs."
- Hur wrote in his report that Biden's "memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with our office in 2023."
Between the lines: The Heritage Foundation's portion of Friday's filing accused Biden's legal team of stonewalling.
- Heritage wrote that Biden opposed the release even of portions of the transcript that matched "exact phrases quoted in the Hur Report."
- While the Justice Department won't oppose Biden's intervention, the Heritage Foundation said it will. It said Biden "waited well over a year to seek to intervene."
The other side: Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo said in a statement shared with outlets including Axios that Biden "cooperated fully with Special Counsel Hur" and provided the recordings "on the condition that they would not be made public."
- Ducklo said DOJ officials had said the tapes serve no public interest.
- "What's happening now isn't about transparency. It's about politics," he added in the emailed statement.
- If this Administration were genuinely committed to transparency, they would release Volume 2 of Special Counsel Jack Smith's report on Donald Trump's own alleged mishandling of classified documents. That report contains information Americans actually deserve to see."
What's next: The Justice Department said if Biden files in court by Tuesday, it will agree to hold off on disclosing the materials until June.
- If not, the department intends to release the files sooner.
Editor's note: This article has been updated with comment from Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo.
