Biden Seeks Court Order to Block Release of Private Recordings Made with Biographer

Former US President Joe Biden has asked a federal judge in Washington to block the Trump administration from publicly releasing audio recordings and transcripts of private conversations he had with his biographer in 2016 and 2017.

The Justice Department obtained the recordings in 2023 during then–Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents. Hur declined to bring criminal charges.

The conservative Heritage Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department in 2024, seeking materials from Hur’s investigation. The recordings, made at Biden’s home, formed part of the preparation process for his 2017 memoir, Promise Me, Dad.

The Justice Department had previously defended withholding the recordings and transcripts. However, under the Republican Trump administration, it has since reversed its position and now plans to release the material to plaintiffs and Congress by June 15.

In a court filing on Tuesday, Biden asked to intervene in the case to prevent disclosure.

“The Department is now abandoning the core tenets of American justice and forsaking its duty to protect law enforcement files,” Biden’s lawyer Amy Jeffress of the law firm Hecker Fink said in the filing.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Oversight Project, a Heritage Foundation offshoot pursuing the lawsuit, said it was confident it would prevail. Its president Mike Howell said: “Joe Biden told the court that he is still hiding. We are not surprised by this, although it is quite outrageous.”

In a filing last week, the plaintiffs said they plan to oppose Biden’s motion as untimely.

Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo said the former president cooperated fully with Hur’s investigation and agreed to provide the audio recordings on the condition they would not be made public. “What’s happening now isn’t about transparency. It’s about politics,” he said.

Jeffress said Biden discussed “a range of sensitive topics” with his biographer, including the late Beau Biden’s battle with cancer. He argues he retains a privacy interest in the recordings and that the government’s reversal is politically motivated.

Under the Biden administration, the Justice Department said in a 2024 filing that releasing the recordings would constitute “a severe invasion of privacy”. In a more recent filing, however, it said it now intends to release the materials following a request from the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee.

Biden’s lawyers have described the congressional request as “pretextual”.

The case is Heritage Foundation v. Department of Justice, in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

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