Former President Joe Biden has withdrawn his lawsuit aiming to prevent the public release of audio recordings from interviews he gave to the ghostwriter of his memoirs, allowing a Republican-led House committee to access the materials. Biden’s legal team filed a notice of voluntary dismissal on July 25 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., following a recent federal appeals court decision that rejected his request to keep the recordings and transcripts confidential.
The recordings, captured during interviews in 2016 and 2017 with Mark Zwonitzer, who assisted Biden with his memoir *Promise Me, Dad*, were later obtained by federal investigators during special counsel Robert Hur’s probe into Biden’s handling of classified documents. Hur declined to bring criminal charges against Biden in 2024 after the investigation, but Republican lawmakers subsequently sought access to the interview content.
Biden’s attorneys had argued that the audio files contained private conversations held in his home and that their disclosure would violate his privacy rights. Nevertheless, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling issued less than a week earlier, stated that the public interest in transparency outweighed any privacy concerns. Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Judge Gregory Katsas, forming the majority, indicated that redactions made by the Justice Department sufficiently protected sensitive personal information while upholding the principle of public disclosure.
Judge Florence Pan dissented, asserting that Biden maintained a “substantial privacy interest” given that the recordings originated from private home conversations and were part of an investigation that did not result in charges. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, initially sought the recordings under the Freedom of Information Act and subsequently filed suit to compel their release.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich had previously ruled in June that although Biden’s privacy interests were legitimate, they were outweighed by the government’s interest in transparency. Her ruling endorsed the Justice Department’s redactions as adequate protections for sensitive details.
After the appeals court ruling, Biden chose not to pursue further legal action, including a potential Supreme Court appeal, instead opting to end the litigation. The dismissal clears the way for the House committee to review the materials as part of ongoing Republican inquiries into Biden’s retention of classified documents during his tenure as a senator and vice president.