Joe Biden drops lawsuit, allowing ghostwriter interview tapes to be released

Former President Joe Biden voluntarily dismissed his lawsuit seeking to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of his 2016‑17 interviews with memoir ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer. The move came less than a week after a three‑judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled 2‑1 that the public’s “substantial” interest outweighs Biden’s privacy claim. The panel stayed its order until Aug. 3 to give Biden time to consider further appeal, while Judge Florence Pan dissented, citing a “substantial privacy interest.”

The tapes, collected during the Justice Department’s classified‑documents investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Hur, were sought by the Heritage Foundation and Republicans in Congress. The recordings pertain to Biden’s memoir “Promise Me, Dad” and were obtained as part of the probe into classified material found at his Delaware home. With the lawsuit dropped, the Justice Department can now release the materials to a Republican‑led congressional committee.

The decision underscores a legal clash between privacy rights and public‑interest transparency in a high‑profile political controversy.