The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has temporarily blocked the Justice Department from releasing 70 hours of Joe Biden's conversations with his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer. The decision was made to give the court sufficient time to consider the emergency motion for an injunction pending appeal.
The conversations at issue date back to 2016 and 2017, when Biden worked on his memoir, "Promise Me, Dad." The recordings were of interest to the Heritage Foundation following an investigation by former special counsel Robert Hur into Biden's handling of sensitive government records after his vice presidency.
Robert Hur's investigation found that Biden "willfully retained" classified information, but he decided not to charge the former president. The report highlighted evidence that Biden retained classified notebooks, knowing he was not allowed to do so.
The court's decision will block the release of the audiotapes to the Oversight Project for 10 days. The temporary injunction expires at 11:59 p.m. on July 20. The purpose of the injunction is to allow the court to consider the emergency motion for an injunction pending appeal.
The controversy surrounding the release of Biden's conversations with his ghostwriter has been ongoing. Biden's lawyers requested an injunction pending appeal after a federal judge cleared the way for the Justice Department to release the recordings last month.
The former president was not charged with any crimes stemming from the investigation. The classified documents in question were stored in Biden's Delaware garage, according to the report by Robert Hur.
