Federal Judge Clears Path for Release of Biden Interview Tapes

By: Luke Miller | The Federalist

A United States District Court judge released an opinion on Friday denying former President Joe Biden’s request for a preliminary injunction to block the release of tapes and transcripts from a set of 2016-2017 interviews that reportedly show Biden’s illegal handling of classified materials.

In May 2026, Biden sued the U.S. Department of Justice to block the release of more than 70 hours of audio recordings of conversations between himself and his biographer, Mark Zwonitzer. After making redactions for privacy purposes, the DOJ was set to release the tapes to The Heritage Foundation as a result of a 2024 Freedom of Information Act request. Biden tried to block their release, arguing that his privacy interests outweigh the public interest in having access to the information.

District court Judge Dabney Friedrich agreed that the release of the Zwonitzer tapes risks harm to Biden’s personal privacy and reputation. But he went on to rule that the public interest in the tapes outweighs that risk because in 2024, the DOJ “prepared a report detailing evidence that the then-sitting President had, among other things, disclosed classified information to his biographer and … Hur … explicitly relied on the Zwonitzer materials in deciding not to prosecute Biden because of his mental state.”

“These unparalleled circumstances account for the high degree of public interest in materials that were gathered during the course of a law enforcement investigation that resulted in no criminal charges,” the opinion stated.

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