Joe Biden's Explosive Legal War: Ex-Prez Sues DOJ to Block Release of Secret Audio Recordings From Special Counsel Probe
Joe Biden sued the Department of Justice on Tuesday.
May 27 2026, Published 12:49 p.m. ET
Former President Joe Biden's secret recordings from conversations with a ghostwriter might be turned over to the public – but he's challenging the release in federal court.
RadarOnline.com can reveal Biden, 83, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice in response to a 2024 Freedom of Information Act request filed by a conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. After all, the original request, which sought to include recordings and transcripts from conversations between Biden and his 2017 ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, was struck down by the Department of Justice.
Biden's Private Conversation Set for Release in June
Without intervention, the files will be released to Congress on June 15.
With President Donald Trump now in office, and under now-former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer, the DOJ reportedly revisited the request.
In February, Biden's attorney Amy Jeffress claimed, the department notified Biden “without any formal explanation for its about-face" about plans to release the recordings and transcripts on June 15.
The lawsuit stated: "The Office of the Deputy Attorney General informed President Biden, through counsel, that the Department had made a final decision to release the materials, with limited redactions, to the Heritage Plaintiffs and to Congress."
Biden's Conversations Detail Personal Strife
The conversations largely center around personal struggles in 2014.
Biden's motivation to block the DOJ's move comes from a place of personal concern.
The recorded conversations were seemingly outside the scope of his duties as a public servant. Rather, they were for the preparation of his memoir, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.
According to the lawsuit, Biden detailed "the most painful of his personal life," beginning on Thanksgiving 2014. While Biden was the vice president under President Barack Obama at the time, Jeffress argued FOIA laws do not apply.
She wrote, "Every American, including a sitting or former Vice President, has a right to privacy in the personal conversations he has within his own home."
Jeffress fought back against the DOJ's renewed interest in the probe, starting back in February, according to court records, entering into direct conversations with the Heritage Foundation.
By early May, she made the former vice president's position clear in a joint status report obtained by RadarOnline.com: "President Biden, through counsel, has advised the Department that he intends to seek to intervene to prevent any such disclosures."
Biden Branded 'Painfully Slow' in 2023 Report
The Heritage Foundation released a 2023 report.
The Heritage Foundation was stunned by the development, believing they were making progress regarding the discovery of documents.
In response, they wrote, "The foregoing status is a surprise to Plaintiffs because the Department had informed Plaintiffs that a release was forthcoming and that negotiations with counsel for President Biden were focused on certain particular materials (which would be expected, as Plaintiffs have never contested that some redactions would likely be appropriate). ... Plaintiffs have conferred multiple times with the Department and understand that the answer as to how this litigation will now (apparently) unfold is in the hands of counsel for President Biden."
The Heritage Foundation previously argued the conversations were of public interest.
In 2023, then-special counsel Robert Hur wrote a report on Biden's handling of classified documents during his vice presidential term. At the time, the report included details obtained via the same FOIA report. As such, the FOIA request was all-encapsulating, requesting any and all records relevant to his probe.
Plus, Hur interviewed Biden in preparation for the report – a conversation which appeared to confirm memory lapses, which White House officials denied.
The report described Biden as "painfully slow, with Mr. Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries.”
Trump Reacts to Biden's Lawsuit
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Donald Trump spoke out against Biden's lawsuit.
In response to the lawsuit, Trump, 79, came out swinging.
While he did not confirm whether the DOJ's U-turn position was under his direct order, the president did declare Biden "A Crooked Politician!!!" on Truth Social.
