Former president Joe Biden has abandoned efforts to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of his 2017 interviews with the ghostwriter of his memoir, effectively ending a legal fight over the records.
Biden’s lawyers filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in a related lawsuit on Friday, clearing the way for the conservative Heritage Foundation — which sued to obtain the material — to receive the tapes and written transcripts. The recordings were made in 2017 while Biden, then out of office, reviewed documents and spoke with the writer about Promise Me, Dad.
The recordings became part of the public dispute after the Justice Department collected them in 2022 during an investigation into classified documents found at Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home. In 2024, special prosecutor Robert Hur concluded that although Biden had taken some classified materials to his home, criminal charges were not warranted. Hur’s report described the former vice president as “well-meaning” but noted memory lapses, and it characterized portions of the 2017 tapes as slow, with Biden sometimes struggling to recall events.
Conservative groups have argued the tapes are relevant to questions about Biden’s cognitive fitness leading up to his 2024 campaign. Jeffrey Clark, a Trump ally involved in efforts to obtain the recordings, said the organizations intend to publish the full audio and transcripts immediately upon receipt.
The Justice Department initially resisted releasing the material, arguing that the interviews were the equivalent of private diary entries. But in May, the department reversed course and said it planned to disclose the records. Biden then intervened in the litigation, asserting privacy interests and statutory protections that he said barred release.
Two lower courts rejected requests to block disclosure, including a divided ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. That panel decision was not strictly partisan: Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, an Obama appointee, and Judge Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee, voted against the injunction, while Judge Florence Pan, a Biden appointee, dissented.
With the likelihood of release high, Biden’s legal team chose to drop the challenge. A source close to Biden, speaking without authorization, criticized the change in the Justice Department’s stance, saying that allowing DOJ to turn over private conversations to a private organization sets a worrisome precedent for government power over individuals’ records.
The Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment.
Biden’s decision to halt the appeal contrasts with former president Donald Trump’s aggressive, never-yield approach to litigation. At the same time Biden stepped back from the tapes case, Trump was petitioning the Supreme Court for another review of a jury verdict that ordered him to pay $5 million to E. Jean Carroll — a move that underscores the differences in how the two men have handled legal fights.