Former President Joe Biden filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the U.S. Department of Justice, seeking to prevent the release of audio recordings and transcripts from private interviews conducted with his biographer in 2016 and 2017.
The suit, lodged in federal court in Washington, D.C., targets materials that the department had planned to turn over on June 15 to the House Judiciary Committee and the Heritage Foundation. Biden argues the handover would violate federal protections and amounts to an improper workaround of Freedom of Information Act exemptions.
According to the complaint, the recordings were made inside Biden’s home during sessions for his 2017 memoir, “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.” The book recounts his decision to run for president while his son Beau battled brain cancer.
The materials surfaced earlier during Special Counsel Robert Hur’s 2023 investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents. Hur ultimately declined to pursue criminal charges against the former president.
The Heritage Foundation requested the records in 2024. The Justice Department initially resisted disclosure, treating the items as exempt under FOIA, the lawsuit states. That stance shifted after President Donald Trump took office, prompting the department to announce it would release the materials in response to the committee’s request.
Biden’s filing asks the court to declare the committee’s demand “pretextual and invalid” and to issue a permanent injunction barring any release to lawmakers. Representatives for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the new litigation.
The lawsuit follows Biden’s earlier attempt this month to intervene in a separate Heritage Foundation suit against the Justice Department over the same records. A judge last week permitted Biden to join that case but blocked him from raising claims tied to the committee’s request, court records show.
Legal observers note that disputes over access to investigative materials have grown more frequent in recent years, particularly when congressional committees seek records previously shielded during criminal reviews. The current case centers on whether the committee’s involvement changes the applicability of FOIA exemptions that previously protected the recordings.
Biden’s attorneys contend the committee’s involvement serves mainly to circumvent restrictions that would otherwise keep the materials private. The complaint emphasizes that the interviews occurred well before Biden’s presidency and involved personal family matters unrelated to official government business.
House Judiciary Committee members have not yet issued a public statement on the lawsuit. The Heritage Foundation, which first pursued the records through FOIA, has described the materials as relevant to understanding the scope of Hur’s inquiry and the handling of classified information.
Release of the audio would mark an unusual disclosure of raw interview material from a closed special-counsel probe. Past cases involving similar recordings have typically resulted in transcripts or summaries rather than full audio files being made public.
The June 15 deadline cited in the complaint remains in place unless the court intervenes. Biden’s legal team is seeking expedited consideration of the request for injunctive relief.
Further proceedings are expected in the coming weeks as the Justice Department responds and the court determines whether to consolidate the new suit with the existing Heritage Foundation litigation.