Former President Joe Biden initiated legal action on Tuesday against the U.S. Department of Justice, asking a federal court in Washington D.C. to bar the release of audio recordings and accompanying transcripts of private conversations he held with his biographer in 2016 and 2017.
The lawsuit targets the department’s plan to deliver those materials to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and to the conservative Heritage Foundation on June 15. According to the filing, the recordings and transcripts were produced as part of the drafting process for Biden’s 2017 memoir, "Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose," and were made in Biden’s home.
The Heritage Foundation requested access after the materials were used in then-Special Counsel Robert Hur’s 2023 review into Biden’s handling of classified documents. Hur did not recommend criminal charges. The lawsuit says the department had previously resisted the Heritage Foundation’s 2024 records request under the Freedom of Information Act, treating the materials as exempt, until the presidential transition to the Trump administration.
In its current position, the department informed requesters that it would provide the materials in response to the House Judiciary Committee’s request. Biden’s suit argues the committee’s request is deliberately crafted to circumvent federal law that would otherwise limit public disclosure of the records.
The complaint asks the court to find that the committee’s request is pretextual and invalid, and to permanently enjoin the Justice Department from releasing the audio and transcripts to the committee. The suit also notes procedural developments in related litigation: earlier this month Biden sought to intervene in the Heritage Foundation’s lawsuit against the department over the same materials. Court records show that a judge allowed Biden to join that case last week but prohibited him from pursuing claims specifically challenging the committee’s request for the materials.
Representatives for the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Context of the recordings
The audio and transcripts at issue were created during discussions Biden had with his biographer while composing his memoir. The memoir addressed Biden’s choice to pursue the presidency amid his eldest son Beau’s battle with brain cancer. The materials later surfaced during the special counsel’s examination in 2023.
The lawsuit frames the committee’s June 15 production timetable and the Heritage Foundation’s involvement as part of a coordinated effort to obtain documents that the department previously treated as exempt from public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
This story will be updated as further filings or departmental comment become available.