The months-long legal battle over the release of former President Joe Biden's recordings from interviews with his memoir ghostwriter — obtained during Special Counsel Robert Hur's classified documents investigation — came to an end on Monday.Biden’s attorneys filed a motion last week to drop their case blocking the release of the audio recordings and transcripts after fighting to keep the material under wraps, noting that Biden is now a private citizen and is not seeking public office.Obama-appointed Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S.District Court for the District of Columbia accepted the voluntary dismissal.BIDEN’S FIGHT TO KEEP HUR INTERVIEW TAPES UNDER WRAPS SUFFERS FRESH COURT BLOWPresident Joe Biden carries a milkshake while visiting Nantucket for the Thanksgiving holiday in 2023.
(BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)The Justice Department obtained recordings of Biden's 2016 and 2017 conversations with Mark Zwonitzer, his ghostwriter for upcoming memoir "Promise Me, Dad." Hur’s team, meanwhile, prepared transcripts during its investigation into Biden’s handling of classified information.Now, the Department of Justice can release the audio recordings and transcripts to the House Judiciary Committee after the Friday motion was accepted.Hur investigated Biden’s handling of classified documents dating from his time as vice president in the Obama administration and as a U.S.Senator from Delaware.
He declined to pursue criminal charges because he concluded prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Biden willfully retained or disclosed the material.He also said in shocking reasoning for the lack of prosecution that Biden could appear to a jury as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" rather than an intentional violator of classified document laws.HUNTER BIDEN RESURFACES IN LA, REACTS TO QUESTIONS ABOUT BIDEN TAPES, UFO FILESWASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 19: United States Attorney Robert Hur speaks at a news confe...