Former President Joe Biden ended his legal battle to block the release of ghostwriter recordings after a federal appeals court rejected his bid to keep them private, with the audio now accessible to the public following a two-year court fight.
Biden dropped his lawsuit on July 25, 2026, three days after a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 that the public interest in the material outweighed his privacy rights. The recordings, roughly 70 hours of audio, capture Biden’s 2016 and 2017 interviews at his home with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer, who worked with him on his 2017 memoir “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.”
The recordings were obtained by special counsel Robert Hur during his investigation into whether Biden improperly retained classified documents from his time as a senator and vice president. In his February 2024 report, Hur found that Biden had volumes of notes at his home containing classified information, though he declined to recommend charges, citing concerns that a jury would view Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
In the released recordings, Biden can be heard cautioning his ghostwriter about potentially classified material. “Some of this may be classified … So, be careful. I’m not sure … It’s not marked classified but —” he says at one point, and later: “The next thing I have here is, um, this is classified …” Biden has maintained that no classified material appeared in the published book.
The appeals court majority found there was “substantial” public interest in disclosing the material with redactions to protect Biden’s privacy. “We conclude that any remaining incursion on personal privacy from disclosure of the now-redacted materials likely does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure,” Judges Sri Srinivasan and Gregory Katsas wrote in their ruling.
Judge Florence Pan, appointed by Biden, dissented, arguing that Biden had shown a “substantial privacy interest” in conversations that took place in his home and were obtained during a criminal investigation that did not result in charges. Biden’s spokesperson T.J. Ducklo said the former president “respects the courts and the vital role an independent judiciary plays in a healthy democracy,” though he characterized the release as “the latest example of this administration weaponizing the DOJ for political retribution.”
The legal dispute began in 2024 when the Heritage Foundation and its sister nonprofit, the Oversight Project, filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records Hur relied upon in his report. When the Biden administration’s Justice Department did not comply within a month, the Oversight Project sued to compel disclosure. The case continued even after Biden sued to block the release, with federal judges ruling against him in June and July before the appeals court suspended its decision until August 3 to allow more time for Biden to consider further appeal—a period during which Biden’s lawyers instead filed a notice of voluntary dismissal.
Biden received an $8 million advance for “Promise Me, Dad” and is scheduled to release a new memoir, “Promise Me, America,” in November 2026, which will detail his presidency, his 2024 reelection campaign, and his decision to step aside from the race.
Sources
- PBS News — appeals court ruling on July 21, 2026, rejecting Biden’s bid to block release, with 2-1 decision and details of judges’ reasoning
- The Hill — Biden’s voluntary dismissal of lawsuit on July 25, 2026, and context on the legal case
- CBS News — release of the 70 hours of recordings, content of the audio with Biden’s statements about classified material, and the two-year court battle timeline
- Associated Press / ABC News — Biden’s suit in May 2026, the Heritage Foundation and Oversight Project’s role, and the DOJ’s involvement
