Appeals court denies Biden bid to block memoir tapes’ release
An appeals court rejected former President Joe Biden’s attempt to block the release of hours of audio recordings he made during his memoir writing process. The tapes, stored by the Justice department, are under legal dispute due to concerns they contain classified information disclosed during private conversations with his ghostwriter.The Heritage Foundation seeks to make these recordings public, while Biden’s team aims to prevent their release. A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit denied Biden’s request for a temporary halt, allowing the release process to proceed while further appeals are considered. The court noted that Biden had not demonstrated sufficient grounds to withhold the tapes. The recordings gained attention in 2023 when special counsel Robert Hur reviewed them as part of an investigation into whether Biden mishandled classified materials, ultimately deciding not to pursue criminal charges. The case involves ongoing legal battles regarding clarity and the handling of sensitive information related to Biden’s memoir and classified documents.
An appeals court on Monday denied former President Joe Biden’s bid to block the release of dozens of hours of audio recordings he made while working on his memoir.
The tapes are being held by the Justice Department and have been the subject of a lengthy legal battle over concerns that Biden disclosed classified information in them during private conversations with his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer. The Heritage Foundation is seeking to release the audio to the public, but Biden’s team has sought to block the DOJ from doing so.
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A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against Biden this week. The court denied the former president’s request for a temporary block while he presses the merits of his legal challenge to the disclosure. In a 2-1 decision, the panel stayed the opinion until Aug. 3 to allow time for further appeals.
“We conclude that Biden has not shown a likelihood that the requested materials must be withheld from disclosure,” the judges wrote.
The tapes attracted attention in 2023, when special counsel Robert Hur obtained the tapes at the Justice Department and began combing through the recordings after he was appointed to investigate concerns that Biden disclosed classified information or kept it at private residences. At the time, Hur released a report finding that, multiple times, “Mr. Biden read classified notes from national security meetings to Zwonitzer nearly verbatim,” as he wrote his 2017 memoir, Promise Me Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship and Purpose. However, the special counsel opted out of bringing criminal charges against Biden, explaining that there was a high probability that the Justice Department would not be able to prove Biden’s intent beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Heritage Foundation has argued that there was significant public interest in releasing all the tapes to provide transparency as to why Hur declined to file criminal charges against Biden in the classified documents case.
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U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, ruled in June that the Justice Department could release the tapes to the Heritage Foundation.
After Biden’s lawyers immediately filed for an injunction, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit temporarily blocked the DOJ in early July from releasing the tapes, stating that the ruling intended only to preserve the status quo while it reviewed Biden’s request for a longer injunction pending appeal and “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits.”
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