Recordings of former President Joe Biden from interviews with his memoir ghostwriter have been released to the public after a months-long legal fight, providing new audio evidence in Special Counsel Robert Hur's classified documents investigation.
The tapes contain more than 70 hours of conversations between Biden and Mark Zwonitzer, who helped write Biden's 2017 book "Promise Me, Dad." The recordings were obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the Oversight Project, a conservative transparency group led by Mike Howell, after a federal court fight that ended when Biden's attorneys abandoned their lawsuit last Friday.
What the Left Is Saying
Democrats and legal analysts supporting Biden have pointed to the fact that no criminal charges were filed in connection with the documents investigation. Hur declined to prosecute, concluding prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Biden willfully retained or disclosed classified material from his time as vice president under Barack Obama and as a U.S. senator from Delaware.
Supporters note that the decision not to charge came after an extensive 15-month investigation and argue the tapes reflect nothing more than the normal challenges of recalling specific events from years earlier. They contend that characterizing Biden's speaking patterns in the recordings as evidence of cognitive decline ignores context about interview settings, personal communication styles, and the passage of time since the conversations took place.
The White House has maintained throughout that the former president cooperated fully with investigators and handled classified materials appropriately given his decades of government service.
What the Right Is Saying
Conservative critics argue the tapes undermine Biden's previous public explanations about the documents discovery. The Oversight Project published the recordings after more than two years of litigation, arguing taxpayers deserve to review materials that informed Hur's prosecutorial decision.
"Joe Biden didn't want these tapes to come out," Oversight Project Vice President of Litigation Jeff Clark told Fox News Digital. "Robert Hur's and Merrick Garland's decision to give Biden a free pass for keeping and disclosing classified information must now be reexamined from top to bottom."
Republican lawmakers have pointed to passages in Hur's report where the special counsel described Biden as appearing to a jury as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" — language critics called inappropriate reasoning for declining charges. Conservative commentators have amplified these portions of the investigation, arguing they suggest preferential treatment.
What the Numbers Show
Hur conducted a 15-month investigation into classified documents found at Biden's Delaware home and former office in Washington. The materials dated from his service as vice president (2009-2017) and senator (1973-2009).
The special counsel interviewed Biden for approximately three hours over two days in October 2023. Hur's report described the interview as including moments where Biden was "struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries."
Hur wrote that "Mr. Biden's memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017 and in his interview with our office in 2023." The report spans 388 pages.
The Oversight Project released over 70 hours of audio recordings from the ghostwriting sessions. Federal prosecutors had already turned over transcripts to congressional committees earlier in the investigation.
The Bottom Line
The release ends a legal battle over transparency surrounding one of the most closely watched Justice Department investigations involving a former president. While Biden was not charged, critics argue the tapes provide context that complicates his public defense of the documents matter.
What happens next depends on ongoing oversight efforts. Congressional committees that received transcripts may schedule hearings to question current and former officials about investigative decisions. The Oversight Project has signaled it will continue using FOIA litigation to pursue additional materials related to the investigation.
The tapes' release also revives broader questions about document handling by senior government officials — an issue that featured prominently in recent political debates, including during Biden's own 2024 presidential campaign against President Donald Trump.