Biden sues Justice Dept. over biographer interview files

May 27, 2026

Summary

Biden sued to block release of biographer interview files used in the classified documents investigation.

Why this matters

The case could affect what records tied to a former president’s private interviews and special counsel investigations may be released under the Freedom of Information Act. It also adds to disputes between Biden, Congress, and the Justice Department over access to materials from the classified documents inquiry.

Former President Joe Biden sued the Justice Department on Tuesday to block the release of files related to interviews he gave to ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer for the 2017 memoir “Promise Me, Dad.”

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, sought to stop the department from releasing about 70 hours of audio recordings and transcripts to the House Judiciary Committee. The interviews were conducted in 2016 and 2017 and later became part of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents.

Biden and his lawyers have long argued the files are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. The suit followed three separate Freedom of Information Act lawsuits seeking to unseal them.

In one case brought by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge earlier this month that they planned to release the files, with redactions, to both the committee and the Heritage Foundation on June 15 unless the court ruled otherwise.

Biden asserted executive privilege over the recordings in 2024 after House Republicans sought access to them.

Classified documents were found in late 2022 and early 2023 at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and at his former office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C. In January 2023, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur to investigate.

Hur released a 345-page report in February 2024 after a yearlong investigation. He wrote that although “Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” there was not enough evidence to bring criminal charges. Hur’s team interviewed 147 people, including Biden.

During Biden’s remaining time in office, the Justice Department rejected requests from Republican lawmakers to release audio from Hur’s interview with Biden, though Axios obtained and published excerpts in May 2025.

In Tuesday’s motion, Biden’s lawyers said the Justice Department under Trump had changed its position. “In February 2026, without any formal explanation for its about-face, the Department notified President Biden of its intention to release the audio recordings and transcripts to the plaintiffs in the FOIA Action,” the motion said.

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