The Justice Department informed a federal judge late Monday that it has located transcripts of Joe Biden’s discussions with a biographer, which it had previously denied existed. These transcripts played a role in the recent criminal investigation into Biden’s handling of classified material.
Following special counsel Robert Hur’s February report, which described Biden as “a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” the Justice Department has been inundated with Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits for records related to Hur’s investigation. These requests come from news outlets and conservative groups seeking information to question Biden’s mental fitness for office, especially after a poor debate performance against Donald Trump last month. Concerns over these issues contributed to Biden's announcement on Sunday that he would not seek reelection.
It's uncertain if Biden’s exit from the race will impact the DOJ’s handling of Hur’s materials. The Justice Department has argued that releasing audio of Biden’s interviews would violate his privacy, risk misuse such as deepfakes, and discourage future witnesses from participating in recorded interviews. Biden has claimed executive privilege over these recordings to prevent House Republicans from holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to release them.
At a recent hearing, DOJ lawyers said processing the audio files of Biden’s interviews with writer Mark Zwonitzer would be time-consuming. These recordings span 70 hours, and reviewing audio for classified material is more challenging than written documents.
During a June 18 hearing on a suit brought by the conservative Heritage Foundation, DOJ lawyer Cameron Silverberg stated, “We don’t have some transcript that’s been created by the special counsel that we can attest to its accuracy.” However, in a court filing Monday night, Silverberg confirmed that Hur’s office had produced transcripts of portions of Biden’s discussions with Zwonitzer. Some conversations contained classified information, though prosecutors were barred by DOJ policy from charging a sitting president and cited Biden’s imprecise memory as a factor.
Recently, the DOJ located six electronic files totaling 117 pages, which are verbatim transcripts of a small subset of the Biden-Zwonitzer audio recordings made by a court-reporting service.
The DOJ also reversed its stance on another matter amid the transcript confusion. Initially resisting Heritage's requests to contact Hur for the materials he used in his report, the DOJ eventually reached out to Hur directly. Hur confirmed he relied on the Biden-Zwonitzer audio and Biden’s handwritten notes about a memo on Afghanistan for his report. Silverberg will confer with the parties seeking access to Hur’s materials about potentially releasing Biden’s notes. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday morning.
