Former US president Joe Biden has filed a lawsuit against the federal government in an effort to prevent the release of recordings and transcripts from interviews conducted with the ghostwriter of his memoir. According to BBC, Biden’s legal team argues that the material contains private and sensitive conversations that should not be made public.
The recordings were obtained by Special Counsel Robert Hur during an investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents. Hur concluded that Biden had improperly kept certain records, but he did not recommend criminal charges. His 2024 report, however, drew major political attention because it raised concerns about Biden’s memory and fitness for office.
The disputed interviews were conducted with writer Mark Zwonitzer while Biden was working on his 2017 memoir, Promise Me, Dad. The book focused heavily on the death of Biden’s son Beau in 2015. According to Hur’s report, Biden referred during those conversations to notes from his time as vice president, some of which appeared to include classified information.
The report also described Biden as struggling at times to recall events and read from his own notes during the interviews. Those findings became politically damaging, adding to broader questions about Biden’s age and health. The issue later became part of the wider debate around his ability to seek another term before he ultimately ended his re election campaign following a poor debate performance.
Republican lawmakers and the conservative Heritage Foundation pushed to obtain the memoir interview records after the report became public. The Justice Department had previously opposed releasing the material on privacy grounds, but under President Donald Trump, the department has reversed its position and indicated that the records could be released by June 15.
Biden’s lawyers say the Justice Department is violating privacy protections and federal administrative law by moving toward disclosure. They argue the government is using an improper justification to expose private conversations for political purposes. The Justice Department, however, says the public should be able to hear the recordings and judge Biden’s mental fitness for themselves.
The legal fight now places Biden’s personal privacy claims against the government’s argument for public transparency. It also reopens one of the most politically sensitive controversies from the final period of Biden’s presidency, as questions about memory, classified documents and political accountability return to the national spotlight.
