The months‑long legal dispute over the release of former President Joe Biden’s interview recordings with his memoir ghostwriter concluded Monday when a federal judge accepted a voluntary dismissal.
Biden’s legal team filed a motion to drop the case, arguing that he is now a private citizen and not seeking public office, prompting the dismissal by Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The recordings, captured in 2016 and 2017 during conversations with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer for the memoir “Promise Me, Dad,” were obtained by the Justice Department as part of special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
With the dismissal, the Justice Department may now provide the audio files and transcripts to the House Judiciary Committee.
Hur’s investigation examined classified documents from Biden’s tenure as vice president and as a U.S. senator, but concluded that prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he willfully retained or disclosed the material.
The special counsel also noted that a jury might view Biden as a sympathetic, elderly man with memory issues rather than an intentional violator of classified‑document laws.
The request for the recordings was driven by a Freedom of Information Act petition filed by Mike Howell, formerly of a conservative think tank and now with the Oversight Project, who argued that the public has a right to review the material that informed Hur’s decision.
A prior appellate ruling held that the public interest in disclosure outweighed any remaining privacy concerns, allowing the FOIA request to proceed.
Hur’s report described the conversations as “painfully slow,” noting that Biden occasionally struggled to recall events and convey information, fueling scrutiny of his cognitive abilities during his 2020 campaign.
In February, the Justice Department reversed its earlier stance and announced plans to release redacted versions of the recordings and transcripts to the petitioners and the House Judiciary Committee.
Biden’s attorneys declined to comment on the development.
