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A federal judge rejected former President Joe Biden’s effort to block the release of recordings from interviews he conducted with a ghostwriter, clearing the way for the Trump administration to provide the materials to a conservative organization that requested them.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled Friday that the public’s interest in the recordings outweighs Biden’s privacy concerns. The recordings were obtained by former special counsel Robert Hur during his investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents from his time as a senator and vice president.
The dispute dates back to the Biden administration’s refusal to release the 2017 recordings and transcripts, despite demands from congressional Republicans following Hur’s decision not to bring criminal charges against the then-president. The standoff ultimately led House Republicans to hold former Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt.
“The harm to Biden’s diminished privacy interest is outweighed by the public’s interest in the Zwonitzer materials,” Friedrich wrote in the ruling.
“As now redacted, the Zwonitzer materials contain no information about Biden’s family or other private persons. And while public figures maintain certain privacy rights, the Department did not abuse its discretion in finding that nothing in the remaining Zwonitzer materials is sensitive enough to outweigh the public’s unusually strong interest,” she added.
After the Trump administration’s Justice Department authorized the release of the materials, Biden filed suit seeking to block their disclosure to a Heritage Foundation staff member who had submitted a records request.
Biden argued that the recordings contained sensitive personal discussions, including references to the death of his son, Beau Biden. However, Friedrich noted that such material had been redacted before release.
Biden’s legal team has asked the court to temporarily prevent the release of the recordings while they appeal the decision. Representatives for the former president did not immediately comment on the ruling, and the Justice Department has not publicly responded.
Friedrich, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Donald Trump in 2017, concluded that the public interest in the materials justified their disclosure despite Biden’s objections.
