WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden sued the Justice Department on Tuesday in an effort to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of the former president’s interview with a ghostwriter that were obtained by the special counsel who investigated his handling of classified documents.
Biden’s lawyers said in a lawsuit filed in Washington’s federal court that the Justice Department plans to release the files to Congress and a conservative group, the Heritage Foundation, after the department had previously argued that they were exempt from disclosure under the public records law.
Biden’s lawyers argued that the disclosure would “constitute an unwarranted invasion of President Biden’s privacy.”
“Every American, including a sitting or former Vice President, has a right to privacy in the personal conversations he has within his own home,” his attorneys wrote. “And when the U.S. Department of Justice obtains that private information through a criminal investigation, the Department bears a particular responsibility to protect it from disclosure.”
At issue in the case are audio recordings and transcripts of Biden’s interviews at his home in 2016 and 2017 with Mark Zwonitzer, who worked with Biden on his two memoirs. The files were scrutinized by special counsel Robert Hur as part of his investigation into the president’s improper retention of classified documents, from his time as a senator and as vice president.
Greygor on May 27th, 2026 at 08:11 UTC »
Lord, never seen so many commentators reply based on the headline rather than what is actually happening.
Biden was interviewed for 5 hours when he was being investigated about classified documents. This transcript has been released without any issue.
The transcript under discussion here was from 2016/2017 and is his personal interviews related to his autobiography. These were seized by the special counsel, examined and found not to have any damning evidence (otherwise the report would have mentioned it). It was then ruled that as a private conversation it shouldn't be released publicly.
Now under this Department of Justice they want to release it, not because it reveals any criminal activity, but because it could embarrass Biden.
Next step, all private non-criminal conversations seized in an investigation is fair game to be released to the public.
MegaPlane2 on May 27th, 2026 at 05:43 UTC »
Trump not only refused to return the documents, when asked. He later denied they existed and when they were found in his fucking bathroom he claimed they were planted.
Raspberries-Are-Evil on May 27th, 2026 at 03:37 UTC »
Leaking transcripts? Sue for $10,000,000,000.