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Former President Joe Biden’s emergency request to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of his interviews with a memoir ghostwriter — materials obtained during special counsel Robert Hur’s classified-documents investigation — was rejected by a federal appeals court Monday.
“We conclude that any remaining incursion on personal privacy from disclosure of the now-redacted materials likely does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure,” a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit wrote in its ruling.
The court kept an existing temporary block on disclosure in place through Aug. 3, allowing Biden time to seek further review.
The Justice Department obtained recordings of Biden’s 2016 and 2017 conversations with Mark Zwonitzer, his ghostwriter for the memoir “Promise Me, Dad,” and Hur’s team prepared transcripts during its investigation into Biden’s handling of classified information.
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Joe Biden speaks during the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Illinois (Kent NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty Images))
Hur investigated Biden’s handling of classified documents dating from his time as vice president in the Obama administration and as a U.S. senator from Delaware. He declined to pursue criminal charges because he concluded prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Biden willfully retained or disclosed the material, and said Biden could appear to a jury as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
The plaintiff, conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, has fought for over two years to retrieve the materials through FOIA requests arguing the public has an interest in reviewing the recordings and transcripts that Hur based his decision on.
Biden’s attorneys have argued the conversations during the memoir interviews were personal and intended to remain private.
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Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report described Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” mirroring the impression he left on viewers of the debate. (Getty Images)
His team has been fighting to keep the recordings under wraps and has noted Biden is now a private citizen not seeking public office.
Dissenting Judge Florence Pan, a Biden nominee, wrote that Biden “has shown a substantial privacy interest” in the conversations, the Associated Press reported.
Hur’s report repeatedly referenced Biden’s recorded conversations with Zwonitzer and described some exchanges as “painfully slow.”
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Former President Joe Biden speaks to a crowd during a fundraising event with the South Carolina Democratic Party at the Columbia Museum of Art on Feb. 27, 2026 in Columbia, S.C. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
He said Biden at times struggled to recall events and relay information, observations that fueled scrutiny of Biden’s cognitive abilities during an election year.
The Justice Department reversed its earlier position in February and said it intended to disclose redacted versions of the recordings and transcripts to the plaintiffs and the House Judiciary Committee.
Biden filed a lawsuit to stop the disclosure and claimed private conversations should remain protected under the Privacy Act.
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reached out to Biden’s attorneys and the Heritage Foundation for comment.
Digital’s Elaine Mallon contributed to this report.
