Judge Allows Release of Biden Ghostwriter Recordings to House Committee but Delays It Three Weeks for Appeal

The Justice Department plans to provide approximately two hours of recordings of former President Joe Biden speaking to ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer in 2016 and 2017 to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee within the next three weeks unless a court blocks the move, CNN reported.

DC District Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled Friday that the Justice Department may release the recordings after listening to them herself. ” Friedrich added that after redactions the materials contain no mention of highly sensitive topics like illness or death or any non-public persons including members of Biden’s family.

The conservative Heritage Foundation won a judge’s initial endorsement last week for public release of the tapes. The foundation has not yet received the recordings or transcripts because Biden is appealing. A federal trial-level judge paused the release for three weeks to allow the DC appellate court time to weigh in.

The Justice Department agreed to wait another three weeks to provide the recordings to Rep. Jim Jordan as court fights continue. Special counsel Robert Hur investigated Biden’s conversations with Zwonitzer about foreign affairs and possible illegal disclosure of classified details.

Hur’s final report stated that Biden conversed with Zwonitzer in a way that was “painfully slow” and struggled to remember things or even read his own notes. More heavily redacted versions of the 2017 transcripts have previously been made public. Separate audio recordings of Biden being interviewed by Hur in 2023 have already been released publicly.

In interviews with prosecutors Biden forgot the years of his vice-presidential term and the year of his son Beau’s death.