Former President Joe Biden has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington D.C. to block the U.S. Department of Justice from releasing audio files and written transcripts of private conversations held with his biographer in 2016 and 2017. The legal filing, submitted on Tuesday, seeks to stop the department's plan to transmit the materials on June 15 to two outside entities: the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The disputed recordings were captured at Biden's home while he collaborated with his biographer on the manuscript that became his 2017 memoir, "Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose." That memoir recounts the period in which Biden weighed a presidential campaign as his eldest son, Beau, was fighting brain cancer.
According to the filing, the DOJ had intended to release both the audio recordings and their accompanying transcripts. The Heritage Foundation had sought access to those materials in connection with its examination of allegations that Biden mishandled classified documents. The inquiry referenced by the request did not produce criminal charges.
The lawsuit represents a legal effort to prevent the dissemination of private interview content gathered during the biography-writing process. It asks the federal court to enjoin the department's scheduled disclosure on procedural grounds set out in the filing.
Details included in the legal complaint focus on the location and timing of the interviews - carried out at the subject's residence in 2016 and 2017 - and the intended recipients of the release. The documents at issue consist of recorded conversations and prepared transcripts used to support the biographical project that resulted in the 2017 book.
At present, the record of the prior inquiry related to classified material indicates it did not culminate in criminal charges. The lawsuit targets the department's plan to provide the recordings to a congressional committee and a private policy organization, seeking judicial relief ahead of the scheduled June 15 transfer.
For readers: The legal action centers on whether recordings and transcripts created during a private, book-writing process may be disclosed by a federal agency to external requesters. The court will consider the arguments raised in the complaint before any material is released.