Appeals court rejects Biden bid to block release of ghostwriter recordings used in special counsel probe

WASHINGTON – Former President Joe Biden lost his bid Monday to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of interviews with his longtime ghostwriter that were used in special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s unlawful hoarding of classified information.A divided federal appeals court ruled the 46th president’s privacy claims did not outweigh the “substantial” public interest in the material, though it suspended its decision until Aug.3 to allow the former chief executive to consider additional action.Following his vice presidency, Biden met multiple times with author Mark Zwonitzer, who ghostwrote Biden’s 2017 memoir “Promise Me Dad.”The audio recordings of those interviews became part of Hur’s investigation, with the special counsel noting in his February 2024 report that Biden showed “diminished faculties and faulty memory,” and described the conversations as “painfully slow, with Mr.

Biden struggling to remember events.”Ultimately, Hur declined to bring changes against Biden, in part because he believed the president would present himself to a jury as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”The Heritage Foundation initially sued the Justice Department in March 2024, seeking the transcripts and recordings under the Freedom of Information Act.The former president is arguing the material isn’t subject to FOIA because it’s personal property.The panel rejected that argument, ruling the material “became subject to FOIA’s disclosure mandate when the Special Counsel obtained possession of them as part of his investigation.”The court also ruled Biden hadn’t shown sufficient evidence that he would “suffer irreparable harm” if the material was released.“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,” read the majority opinion by D.C.

Circuit Chief Judge Sr...