Lawyers: Biden to fight DOJ plan to release audio of his talks with ghostwriter
Source: Politico
05/10/2026 11:56 AM EDT
Former President Joe Biden intends to intervene in litigation to block the Trump administration’s effort to release 70 hours of partially redacted audio recordings of interviews he conducted in 2017 with a ghostwriter who worked with Biden on his memoirs, the Justice Department indicated in new court papers. DOJ lawyers told a federal judge in Washington on Friday that they expected Biden would seek to “prevent any such disclosures” of the audio tapes to Congress and to the conservative Heritage Foundation, which sued last year to access the materials.
Justice Department attorneys advised U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich that they set a deadline of Tuesday for Biden to take legal action to block the release and agreed to hold off any disclosure until June 15 if Biden does go to court before this week’s deadline. A spokesperson for Biden confirmed Sunday that he plans to resist release of the audio to the public or to lawmakers.
“President Biden cooperated fully with Special Counsel Hur, and agreed to provide audiotapes of conversations with his biographer for a book about his deceased son on the condition that they would not be made public,” Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo said in a statement. “The DOJ themselves have said these tapes serve no public interest.”
“What’s happening now isn’t about transparency. It’s about politics,” Ducklo continued. “If this Administration were genuinely committed to transparency, they would release Volume 2 of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on Donald Trump’s own alleged mishandling of classified documents. That report contains information Americans actually deserve to see.”
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/10/joe-biden-audio-tapes-release-00913523
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