Former President Biden Sues DOJ to Halt Release of Biographer Interview Tapes
WASHINGTON — Former President Joe Biden has launched legal action against the Department of Justice (DOJ), attempting to stop the looming public release of audio recordings and transcripts from interviews he gave to a biographer.
The files in question later became a focal point of a special counsel probe into his handling of classified information.
The lawsuit, which was submitted on Tuesday to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, targets roughly 70 hours of audio and corresponding transcripts.
These recordings stem from conversations Biden had in 2016 and 2017 with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer while collaborating on his 2017 memoir, Promise Me, Dad.
While Biden’s legal team has consistently maintained that these personal interview materials are exempt from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the DOJ—under the current Trump administration—notified Biden in February 2026 that it intended to reverse its stance and release the materials.
Changing Postures at the Justice Department
According to the legal filing, the DOJ unexpectedly shifted its position without providing a formal explanation.
Prior to this, during Biden’s presidency, the department had resisted efforts by House Republicans and conservative groups to secure the audio. Biden had also asserted executive privilege over the tapes back in 2024.
The immediate catalyst for the lawsuit is a trio of FOIA cases, including one brought forward by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation.
Earlier this month, government attorneys informed a federal judge that, absent a restraining order, they intended to hand over redacted versions of the files to both the House Judiciary Committee and the Heritage Foundation on June 15.
Roots of the Classification Probe
The files became government evidence following the late 2022 and early 2023 discoveries of classified materials at Biden’s private office at the Penn Biden Center and his personal residence in Wilmington, Delaware.
In response, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Special Counsel Robert Hur in January 2023 to investigate.
In his final February 2024 report, Hur concluded that while Biden had "willfully retained and disclosed classified materials" as a private citizen, criminal charges were not warranted. Hur's investigation relied heavily on the ghostwriter's tapes to establish what Biden knew regarding the documents in his possession.
A Contrast in Document Probes
The litigation highlights the starkly different trajectories of the classified document investigations involving both Biden and Donald Trump.
While Trump's team initially faced dozens of federal charges over documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022, those charges were dismissed in July 2024 after a judge ruled Special Counsel Jack Smith's appointment unconstitutional.
More recently, in February 2026, that same judge blocked the public release of Smith’s investigative report regarding Trump.
Following the news of Biden's lawsuit on Tuesday evening, Donald Trump criticized his predecessor on social media, calling him a "Crooked Politician."
The Justice Department has not yet publicly commented on the newly filed complaint.
