WASHINGTON D.C—On May 26, former President Joe Biden filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) to intervene in President Trump’s plan to expose the audio and written transcripts from Biden’s 2017 book sessions.
Reports indicate that Biden filed suit against the DOJ to block the release of nearly 70 hours of recordings and transcripts between Biden and his private ghostwriter on the same day that the DOJ was expected to respond to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from The Heritage Foundation.
Biden contends that the recordings and transcripts of his private interviews during the special counsel investigation were classified documents. Biden took legal action to attempt to prevent the DOJ from publicizing what he refers to as“His private conversations” on the scheduled date of June 15.
The material in question is reportedly recordings and transcripts taken from 2016 and 2017, interviews between the former President and his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, during the writing of Biden’s memoir, Promise Me, Dad.
Biden’s attorneys called the release of the files an “invasion of privacy.”
It was Special Counsel Robert Hur who initially obtained the files during his investigation into Biden’s retention of classified documents. Some of which were found at the Biden Penn Center. Others were found elsewhere.
Following his probe into Biden’s retention of classified records, Hur concluded with no criminal charges to be filed against Biden. Hur described Biden as an “elderly man with poor memory” who potentially could not withstand a trial.
Biden’s May 2026 intervention in the release of the records has caused the legal deadlines to be litigated by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia under Joseph R. Biden, Jr. v. U.S. Department of Justice (Case 1:26-cv-01818).
Updates on the case may be found under FOIA Project website.
