{"id":1084,"date":"2026-05-28T20:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T20:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=1084"},"modified":"2026-05-28T20:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T20:06:09","slug":"biden-sues-justice-department-to-stop-release-of-audio-and-transcripts-tied-to-special-counsel-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=1084","title":{"rendered":"Biden sues Justice Department to stop release of audio and transcripts tied to special counsel probe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Joe Biden sued the\u00a0Justice Department\u00a0on Tuesday in an effort to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of the former president\u2019s interview with a ghostwriter that were obtained by the special counsel who investigated his handling of classified documents.<\/p>\n

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Biden\u2019s lawyers said in a lawsuit filed in Washington\u2019s federal court that the Justice Department plans to release the files to Congress and a conservative group, the Heritage Foundation, after the department had previously argued that they were exempt from disclosure under the public records law.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s lawyers argued that the disclosure would \u201cconstitute an unwarranted invasion of President Biden\u2019s privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery American, including a sitting or former Vice President, has a right to privacy in the personal conversations he has within his own home,\u201d his attorneys wrote. \u201cAnd when the U.S. Department of Justice obtains that private information through a criminal investigation, the Department bears a particular responsibility to protect it from disclosure.\u201d<\/p>\n

At issue in the case are audio recordings and transcripts of Biden\u2019s interviews at his home in 2016 and 2017 with Mark Zwonitzer, who worked with Biden on his two memoirs. The files were scrutinized by special counsel Robert Hur as part of his investigation into the president\u2019s\u00a0improper retention of classified documents, from his time as a senator and as vice president.<\/p>\n

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Hur\u2019s yearlong investigation led to a 345-page report that questioned Biden\u2019s age and mental competence but recommended no criminal charges against the then-81-year-old. Hur said he found insufficient evidence to successfully prosecute a case in court.<\/p>\n

Biden has separately fought the release of the audio of his interview with Hur. The House in 2024 voted to hold Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland\u00a0in contempt of Congress\u00a0for refusing to turn over that audio after the White House exerted executive privilege, shielding it from Congress.<\/p>\n

The transcripts of\u00a0five hours of Biden interviews\u00a0with federal prosecutors was released that same year. While Biden was adamant that he treated classified information seriously, the transcript shows that\u00a0he was at times fuzzy about dates and details\u00a0and he said he was unfamiliar with the paper trail for some of the sensitive documents he handled.<\/p>\n

Republicans have argued Biden was being given a pass by his own Justice Department and that Trump had been unfairly victimized by prosecutors. Democrats, for their part, stressed Biden\u2019s cooperation in the investigation and strongly contrasted that with the separate criminal case against Trump, who was accused of refusing to return classified documents requested by the National Archives that he had at his Florida estate.<\/p>\n

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Joe Biden has sued the Justice Department in an effort to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of the former president\u2019s interview with a ghostwriter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nBiden sues Justice Department to stop release of audio and transcripts tied to special counsel probe - Tucson Moving Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=1084\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biden sues Justice Department to stop release of audio and transcripts tied to special counsel probe - 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