SouthernWorldwide.com – President Joe Biden’s legal team is reportedly preparing to contest the Justice Department’s potential release of audio recordings and written transcripts from Biden’s 2017 discussions with his book ghostwriter.
According to a recent court filing, Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate indicated that Biden’s lawyers have informed the Department of Justice of their intention to intervene and block any such disclosures.
The Justice Department itself has stated that it does not oppose Biden’s intervention in this matter. This development comes as a response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by Mike Howell of the Heritage Foundation.
Biden’s attorneys have a Tuesday deadline to formally respond to the Justice Department’s planned release of the materials. If no objection is filed by this deadline, the release would proceed shortly thereafter.
Shumate’s filing further noted that if Biden objects before the deadline, the release of approximately 70 hours of redacted recordings would be postponed until June 15.
The court filing details that the Justice Department intends to disclose both the written transcripts and audio recordings, after applying necessary redactions, to the House Judiciary Committee. This disclosure is being made pursuant to a request from the Committee’s Chair, as well as to the plaintiffs in the FOIA lawsuit.
These recorded interactions took place between President Biden and his ghostwriter for the 2017 book, “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.” The audio and transcripts were initially obtained as part of special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
The investigation, which concluded after the Obama administration, focused on Biden’s practices, including the storage of classified documents in his garage and at the Penn Biden Center.
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A spokesperson for Biden, TJ Ducklo, previously stated that President Biden cooperated fully with special counsel Hur. Ducklo also mentioned that Biden agreed to provide the audiotapes of his conversations with his biographer on the condition that they would not be made public.
Ducklo further asserted that the Justice Department itself has acknowledged that these tapes do not serve a public interest. He characterized the current situation not as an effort towards transparency, but rather as a political maneuver.
The spokesperson suggested that if the administration were truly committed to transparency, they would release Volume 2 of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report concerning Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, arguing that this report contains information the American public has a right to see.
Fox News has reached out to Ducklo for independent confirmation of these statements but has not yet received a response.
The individual who initiated the FOIA request, Mike Howell, continues to pursue the release of these documents.
Howell, who also serves as president of Heritage’s Oversight Project, expressed his belief that these tapes will further expose what he described as a “massive lie” regarding Biden’s fitness for office. He also claimed the tapes would reveal that Biden disclosed classified information.
Howell criticized the actions of the “autopen,” suggesting it is objecting to the American people receiving transparency, and called it a tactic of delay at the last possible moment.
Special counsel Hur concluded his investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents. Hur cited longstanding Department of Justice policy against indicting a sitting president. He also suggested that a jury might be sympathetic to the then-82-year-old president, describing him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
The court filing from Shumate on Friday stated that after months of negotiation, without seeking timely intervention, President Biden has apparently changed his stance and now seeks to prevent the release of transcript portions that precisely match phrases already quoted in the Hur Report.
The filing highlights that the potential intervention by President Biden, along with the new development of a discretionary release to the House Judiciary Committee in response to their March 23, 2026 letter, raises several significant issues.
According to the plaintiffs’ understanding of the situation, President Biden would require a court order to block the release in this specific case. Additionally, he would need an order to prevent the Department of Justice from producing the documents to the House Judiciary Committee by June 15, 2026.
The Justice Department has also accused Biden’s legal team of intentionally delaying responses and disregarding established deadlines.
The filing further elaborated on the perceived delays, noting that President Biden’s lead counsel was reportedly unable to provide information regarding any submissions arguing that the discussion was premature. It was also indicated that despite the June 15, 2026 production date, a motion to intervene would not be filed until the middle of the following week.
Moreover, Biden’s counsel would seek up to three days after a ruling granting the motion to intervene to submit a proposed schedule for substantive relief. This approach, the filing argues, is not a standard way to conduct litigation and appears to be a tactic to delay the June 15 production through some form of administrative injunction.
The Justice Department reiterated its warning regarding the Tuesday deadline, irrespective of these procedural maneuvers.
Shumate’s filing concluded by stating that the public deserves to hear the tapes and read the transcripts, as redacted by the Department of Justice under President Donald J. Trump. The plaintiffs expressed regret that they are currently unable to assist the Court in this process due to the repeated failure of President Biden’s counsel to engage with them on the matter, deferring even initial substantive conversations until the following week.
