Joe Biden’s private conversations with his ghostwriter are one step closer to becoming public.
A divided federal appeals court late Monday rejected the former president’s attempt to block the release of redacted audio recordings and transcripts from interviews conducted while he was working on his memoirs.
The 2-1 decision found a “substantial” public interest in the material, which later became evidence in special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation of Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Biden still has another legal card to play. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit suspended its decision until Aug. 3, giving his attorneys time to request further review.
“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,” the majority wrote in the court’s decision.
The recordings capture interviews Biden gave author Mark Zwonitzer at his home in 2016 and 2017. Zwonitzer worked with Biden on two books, “Promises to Keep,” published in 2007, and “Promise Me, Dad,” released in 2017.
Biden’s lawyers argued that the conversations were candid, deeply personal and conducted with the expectation that they would remain private.
The court majority concluded that proposed redactions provided sufficient protection for Biden’s privacy and that the public’s interest in the records carried greater weight.
Judge Florence Pan, a Biden appointee, dissented.
“The conversations at issue took place in Biden’s home, and the recordings of them were obtained by the government in the course of a criminal investigation that did not lead to an indictment,” Pan wrote.
She argued that Biden had demonstrated a “substantial privacy interest” in keeping the material from public release.
The panel also included Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, and Judge Gregory Katsas, who was appointed by President Trump.
Hur obtained the recordings while investigating Biden’s possession and handling of classified material from his years in the Senate and as Obama’s vice president. The special counsel ultimately declined to bring criminal charges.
Republicans in Congress subsequently demanded access to the recordings and transcripts, arguing that the material could shed additional light on Biden’s conduct and the decision not to prosecute him.
Biden sued to prevent the Trump Justice Department from releasing the records to Congress and the conservative Heritage Foundation. The department had previously argued that the material was exempt from disclosure under federal public-records law.
The appeals-court ruling followed a June decision by US District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, who also determined that the public interest outweighed Biden’s asserted privacy concerns.
Monday’s order is not necessarily the final word. Biden could ask the full D.C. Circuit to reconsider the case or seek emergency intervention from the Supreme Court before the Aug. 3 deadline.
More over at AP News:
BREAKING: An appeals court rejects Joe Biden's bid to withhold recordings and transcripts of pre-presidency interviews with a memoir ghostwriter. https://t.co/SamAhfU984
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 21, 2026
