Former President Joe Biden withdrew a legal challenge aimed at preventing the disclosure of audio recordings and interview transcripts from sessions with his memoir ghostwriter, according to a filing by his attorneys on Friday. The decision came less than a week after a federal appeals court panel voted to reject his request for an injunction blocking the material’s release.
The three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a 2-1 ruling on Monday, concluding that a “substantial” public interest existed in disclosing the recordings. Biden had been granted until August 3 to pursue additional legal remedies, including a petition to the Supreme Court or a request for reconsideration by the full appeals court. Instead, his legal team opted to terminate the lawsuit through a voluntary dismissal notice.
Circuit Judge Florence Pan dissented from the majority opinion, arguing that Biden had demonstrated a “substantial privacy interest” in maintaining the confidentiality of the material. The panel also included D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Judge Gregory Katsas. The recordings stemmed from interviews conducted by Mark Zwonitzer, who collaborated with Biden on two memoirs published in 2007 and 2017, during sessions at Biden’s residence in 2016 and 2017. Biden’s legal representatives characterized the conversations as candid and personal in nature, intended to remain private.
Special counsel Robert Hur obtained the recordings while investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents from his tenure as a Delaware senator and vice president. Congressional Republicans sought access to the material after Hur determined that charges were not warranted against the then-president. A lower court judge, appointed by President Donald Trump, had previously ruled in June that the public interest in disclosure outweighed privacy considerations.
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