The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) alleges that former U.S. President Joe Biden will attempt to obstruct the Trump administration’s effort to release 70 hours of partially redacted audio recordings of interviews he participated in 2017 with a ghostwriter who worked with the former president to develop his memoirs, according to newly unsealed court documents.
According to Politico, DOJ attorneys advised U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich that they expected Biden would aim to “prevent any disclosures” of the audio memos to Congress and to the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The lawyers informed Judge Friedrich that they set a May 12, 2026, deadline for Biden to take legal action to block the release of the recordings.
In addition, the DOJ agreed to halt any disclosure until June 15, 2026, should Biden introduce any litigation before the deadline.
“President Biden cooperated fully with Special Counsel Hur, and agreed to provide audiotapes of conversations with his biographer for a book about his deceased son on the condition that they would not be made public,” Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo said in a statement, confirming the effort. “The DOJ themselves have said these tapes serve no public interest,” Ducklo added.
“What’s happening now isn’t about transparency. It’s about politics,” Ducklo added. “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.”
The 70 hours of audio recordings were obtained by investigators working with special counsel Robert Hur. Former Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur in 2023 following the discovery of classified information in a think tank that Biden was affiliated with after leaving the vice presidency. The files reportedly were also found in Biden’s Delaware home.
DOJ officials allege that Biden read classified information to ghostwriter Marc Zwonitzer from notebooks found downstairs.
“I just found all the classified stuff downstairs,” Biden told Zwonitzer, according to Hur’s report of his interview with the former president.
