Biden seeks to block DOJ release of 2017 audio, court filing says

President Joe Biden's lawyers are expected to object to the Justice Department's release of redacted written transcripts and audio recordings of Biden's 2017 interactions with his book ghostwriter, according to a new court filing.

"President Biden, through counsel, has advised the Department that he intends to seek to intervene to prevent any such disclosures," Assistant Attorney General Civil Division Brett Shumate wrote in a filing from a Freedom of Information Act request from the Heritage Foundation's Mike Howell. "The Department does not oppose intervention."

There is a Tuesday deadline for Biden's lawyers to respond to the DOJ's release for a response to Howell's FOIA request, which would come shortly after Tuesday if there was no objection.

Shumate noted the release of 70 hours of redacted recordings would be delayed until June 15 if Biden objects before the deadline.

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"Defendant intends to disclose the written transcript and audio recordings at issue in this matter, with redactions, to Congress, pursuant to a request from the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, as well as to Plaintiffs," the filing in Howell's FOIA lawsuit with the DOJ read.

The interactions came between Biden and his ghostwriter for the 2017 book: "Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose." The audio and transcript were obtained by special counsel Robert Hur's investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents after the Obama administration ended, which included storing them in his garage and at the Penn Biden Center.

"President Biden cooperated fully with special counsel Hur, and agreed to provide audiotapes of conversations with his biographer for a book about his deceased son on the condition that they would not be made public," Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo told Politico in a statement Sunday. "The DOJ themselves have said these tapes serve no public interest.

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"What’s happening now isn’t about transparency. It’s about politics," Ducklo continued. "If this Administration were genuinely committed to transparency, they would release Volume 2 of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on Donald Trump’s own alleged mishandling of classified documents. That report contains information Americans actually deserve to see."

Fox News reached out to Ducklo for independent confirmation on this report and has not yet heard back.

The FOIA requester remains in pursuit of the documents.

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"These tapes will further prove the massive lie regarding Biden’s fitness for office and the fact Biden revealed classified information," Howell, president of Heritage's Oversight Project, told Politico. "The shenanigans aren’t over: At the last possible second, and after every delay tactic possible, the autopen is objecting to the American People receiving transparency. "

Hur concluded his investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents, noting longstanding DOJ policy of not indicting a sitting president and saying a jury would be sympathetic to the oldest sitting American president, 82, because he was a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

"It appears that after lengthy negotiation covering several months — at no point seeking to intervene into this case on a timely basis — President Biden has changed position and now seeks to even enjoin release of the portions of transcripts that match exact phrases quoted in the Hur Report," Shumate's filing Friday read.

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"The potential intervention by former President Biden and the new development of a discretionary release to the House Judiciary Committee in response to their March 23, 2026 letter, raises a number of issues":

"As Plaintiffs understand the matter, President Biden would need an order barring release in this case and an order enjoining the Department from producing to the House Judiciary Committee all by June 15, 2026."

The DOJ also accuses Biden's lawyers of slow-walking responses and rejecting deadlines.

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"President Biden’s lead counsel was unable to provide any information about President Biden’s submissions arguing that such discussion was somehow premature (whereas, in reality it is 16 months late) and incredibly indicating that despite the June 15, 2026 production date, the motion to intervene would not be filed until mid-next week and that President Biden would seek up to three days after a ruling granting a motion to intervene to submit a proposed schedule for substantive relief," the filing read.

"That is no way to conduct litigation and smacks of kicking the can down the road to justify delaying the June 15, 2026 production by some form of administrative injunction."

The DOJ issued a new warning of Tuesday's deadline, regardless.

READ THE COURT FILING – APP USERS, CLICK HERE:

"The public deserves to hear the tapes and read the transcripts as redacted by President Donald J. Trump’s Department of Justice," Shumate's filing concluded. "Plaintiffs regret that they are currently unable to assist the Court in this process due to the repeated failure of counsel for President Biden to engage with Plaintiffs on this matter, putting off even initial substantive conversations until next week."