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Recordings, classified notes
Newly released audio tapes disclosed by the conservative activist group Oversight Project show former U.S. President Joe Biden discussing potentially classified material with memoir ghostwriter Mark Lewis Zwonitzer in interviews conducted in 2016 and 2017.
“A series of unexplored audio recordings has come to light, revealing conversations of former United States President Joe Biden that address sensitive topics related to classified documents and his notorious memory lapses”
In the recordings, Biden says, "Some of this may be classified, so be careful with it," and later tells Zwonitzer, "I just found all the classified stuff downstairs."
The Hill reports that the recordings were released after Biden dropped a lawsuit seeking to block publication and that the U.S. Department of Justice released the material to the Oversight Project under a Freedom of Information Act request.
PBS, citing Associated Press reporting, says the tapes were disclosed after Biden lost a prolonged legal fight to keep his conversations with Zwonitzer private, and that about three hours of audio and 117 pages of transcripts were released with many redactions.
CBS News reports that the audio was recorded while Biden worked with Zwonitzer on his 2017 memoir, "Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose," and that no classified material was ever alleged to be in the published book.
Memory lapses and dispute
The Hill says the released recordings include Biden struggling to remember key details and names during the 2016 and 2017 home interviews with Zwonitzer, and it notes that Special counsel Robert Hur did not recommend charges because a jury would view Biden as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
In the BBC’s account, Biden is heard telling Zwonitzer, "The next thing I have here is, um, this is classified," during audio recorded in February 2017, a month after he left the White House.
PBS reports that at the Oversight Project, Vice President of Litigation Jeff Clark insisted the tapes prove Biden's decline, saying, "The tapes have always belonged to the American People, the Oversight Project just delivered them to their rightful owner."
Biden’s spokesperson TJ Ducklo criticized the release, telling CBS News that the conversations were private and provided to the Department of Justice on the express condition they stay that way, adding, "Reversing course and making them public is just the latest example of this Administration weaponizing the DOJ for political retribution."
CBS News also says Hur characterized Biden as "struggling to remember events," exhibiting "diminished faculties" and having "painfully slow" conversations as early as 2016.
What’s at stake next
The Hill reports that the recordings were referenced in a 2023 special counsel investigation into classified documents found in Biden’s private residence, and that Hur ultimately did not recommend charges.
“Audio recordings that former President Joe Biden fought for years to keep private have now been released”
BBC says House Republicans and the conservative nonprofit the Oversight Project sued for the tapes as part of that probe into Biden's handling of the records, and it adds that the recordings contain significant redactions that Republicans on the House Oversight Committee say "are intended to cover [Biden's] disclosure of classified information."
CBS News reports that the recordings were released after a two-year court battle by the Oversight Project and that Biden’s legal team initially sought to enjoin the release but declined to pursue the matter further.
The Hill says Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo stated the recordings were shared with the Justice Department "on the express condition that they stay" private, framing the publication as political retribution.
PBS reports that Hur obtained the tapes as part of his inquiry and that Hur said he believed a jury would find Biden sympathetic because of his age and what Hur described as a "poor memory," keeping the dispute centered on both classified-document handling and Biden’s memory.
