Former US president Biden sues to stop DOJ disclosing interview tapes

WASHINGTON – Former US President Joe Biden is suing the US Justice Department in an effort to block officials from sharing audio recordings and transcripts of interviews he gave for a memoir project with Republicans in Congress and a conservative advocacy group.

The extraordinary lawsuit, which pits a former US president against his successor’s administration, comes amid a long-running legal fight over a public records request for the materials by the Heritage Foundation.

The group sought the materials after a 2024 report came out citing the recordings as proof of Mr Biden’s “diminished” mental state.

Mr Biden on May 26 filed his own legal challenge to stop the disclosure, which is set to happen on June 15, according to his complaint.

“Every American, including a sitting or former Vice-President, has a right to privacy in the personal conversations he has within his own home,” Mr Biden’s lawyers wrote, referring to the fact that the 2016 and 2017 recordings were made during and after his time in the Obama administration.

The Justice Department under Mr Biden had fought disclosure of the recordings and transcripts, which were obtained by a former special counsel probing his handling of classified information.

No charges were brought.

The interviews were used by Mr Biden and his writing partner to develop his 2017 memoir.

In the latest lawsuit filed in federal district court in Washington, Mr Biden’s attorneys accused the Justice Department of taking a legal stance at odds with its longstanding positions about what materials are exempt from Freedom of Information Act requests.

The attorneys also claimed DOJ secured a “pretextual” request from the House Judiciary Committee for the records as an “end-run” around the Heritage Foundation’s pending litigation.

“The proposed disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of President Biden’s privacy,” his lawyers wrote.

Spokespeople for the Justice Department, House Judiciary Committee and the Heritage Foundation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a report released in early 2024, former special counsel Robert Hur had written that in interviews with his ghostwriter, Mr Biden displayed “diminished faculties and faulty memory.” 

He concluded that there wasn’t enough evidence that Mr Biden “willfully” revealed national defence information and that it would be difficult to persuade a jury to convict him.

Mr Biden and his allies rebutted Mr Hur’s characterisations but the Democrat ultimately dropped his re-election bid several months later.

The Heritage Foundation sued shortly after Mr Hur’s report came out to enforce its records request for the materials that he relied on, arguing the public had an interest in understanding the passages about Mr Biden’s “mental faculties and memory.”

Until Mr Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, the Justice Department had opposed disclosing the recordings and full transcripts, citing Mr Biden’s privacy rights.

Earlier in May, the Justice Department notified the judge in the Heritage Foundation’s case that it intended to share the materials unless Mr Biden intervened.

A judge ruled last week that Mr Biden could join that case as a participant, but limited the claims he could raise. 

His attorneys wrote that they filed the new lawsuit so that they could fully press their objections. BLOOMBERG