A federal judge on Friday ruled that redacted transcripts and recordings of conversations between former U.S. President Joe Biden and his biographer will not be released for at least three weeks, pending an appeal of the judge’s ruling that they should be released. File Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo
A federal judge on Friday told the U.S. Department of Justice it cannot release a transcript and recording of former President Joe Biden and his biographer’s conversations.
Although U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich had earlier in the day denied Biden’s request for an injunction, she nonetheless told the department to wait three weeks for the release as his lawyers file an appeal, ABC News and CBS News reported.
Redacted versions of a transcript and recording of conversations between Biden and the ghostwriter of his biography, Mark Zwonitzer, were set to be released by the Justice Department on Friday afternoon after Friedrich’s initial ruling.
The recordings had been set for release to the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, which filed a Freedom of Information Act request in 2024 based on reports of Biden’s handling of sensitive and secret government records during the years between serving as vice president to President Barack Obama and being elected to the White House himself.
“Biden has not identified any public harm that would arise absent an injunction in this case,” Friedrich wrote in her decision.
“The harm to Biden’s diminished privacy interest is outweighed by the public’s interest in the Zwonitzer materials and FOIA’s ‘policy of broad disclosure of Government documents in order to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society,” she wrote.
Biden’s attorney’s argued that the conversations for his book were not intended to have been released and that the public’s only interest is because of the government records case, which investigators referred to in their report.
Biden was not charged or alleged of any wrongdoing after the investigation because while evidence suggested that he “willfully retained and disclosed classified material,” his guilt for having done so could not be fully established for a successful prosecution, investigators said at the time.
This week in Washington
President Donald Trump presents a Medal of Honor to Tom Ripley on behalf of his father, John W. Ripley, during a Medal of Honor award ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Thursday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
