Former President Joe Biden sues the U.S. Department of Justice to block the disclosure of audio recordings and transcripts from private interviews he gave to a memoir ghostwriter. Multiple outlets report the interviews occurred in 2016 and 2017 during the writing of Biden’s memoir with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer. The lawsuit is filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., and seeks to prevent DOJ officials from releasing the materials, which the Justice Department obtained during the 2023 special counsel investigation led by Robert Hur into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
The reporting also says DOJ planned to release the interview materials to Congress and to outside entities, including the House Judiciary Committee and the Heritage Foundation. Biden’s complaint argues that disclosure would violate his privacy rights and that the government has responsibilities to protect sensitive law-enforcement information, especially because the conversations took place in his home. The sources describe that DOJ initially withheld the records under exemptions but later reversed course under President Donald Trump’s second term, prompting the lawsuit. The outlets also note Biden’s involvement in related legal efforts concerning requests for the same materials.
