{"id":3629,"date":"2026-05-27T13:39:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/2026\/05\/27\/biden-sues-justice-department-to-block-release-of-hur-interview-audio\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T13:39:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:39:39","slug":"biden-sues-justice-department-to-block-release-of-hur-interview-audio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/?p=3629","title":{"rendered":"Biden sues justice department to block release of Hur interview audio"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"border-color:var(--article-border);background-color:var(--article-inner-background)\" class=\"dcr-wqti5a\">\n<div class=\"dcr-2zxs1v\">\n<div style=\"--grid-area:media\" data-gu-name=\"media\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-14emo0l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-tr9ye5\">\n<figure id=\"f4fa673b-b93f-426e-8d78-2c31dfade3de\" class=\"dcr-142siv7\">\n<div id=\"img-1\" class=\"dcr-1t8m8f2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"a man speaks into a microphone\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/c81bcdb3cad87326554b183cea4839f2c1920dce\/0_0_2030_1354\/master\/2030.jpg?width=465&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" width=\"465\" height=\"310.1527093596059\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"dcr-evn1e9\"><span class=\"dcr-v822l1\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-gup2gr\">\n<div class=\"dcr-fntg6k\"><label for=\"the-checkbox\" class=\"dcr-1xgwz8b\"><\/label> <\/p>\n<div id=\"the-caption\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1os51wo\"><span class=\"dcr-hvsf4t\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Joe Biden speaks during a memorial service to celebrate the life of the civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson, in Chicago on 6 March 2026.<\/span> Photograph: Jim Vondruska\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><a href=\"#img-1\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-13fd1ms\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><button data-element-id=\"f4fa673b-b93f-426e-8d78-2c31dfade3de\" type=\"button\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-4tmywn\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-194i6pr\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"dcr-n4pnam\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1hdkqum\"><span class=\"dcr-hvsf4t\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Joe Biden speaks during a memorial service to celebrate the life of the civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson, in Chicago on 6 March 2026.<\/span> Photograph: Jim Vondruska\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:border\" data-gu-name=\"border\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:headline\" data-gu-name=\"headline\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-14emo0l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1aqe7zu\">\n<h1 class=\"dcr-1k1a1x\">Biden sues justice department to block release of Hur interview audio<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:standfirst\" data-gu-name=\"standfirst\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-15in7js\">\n<p>Former president says disclosure of recordings tied to classified files inquiry would violate his privacy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:body\" data-gu-name=\"body\" class=\"dcr-kn9unn\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1a4fred\">\n<div id=\"maincontent\" class=\"dcr-ydnaza\">\n<div class=\"article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-1c9t5u6\">\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/joebiden\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Joe Biden<\/a>, the former president, has filed a lawsuit to try to prevent the justice department (DoJ) from releasing transcripts and audio of interviews that exposed his frequent memory lapses and helped derail his 2024 re-election campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The decade-old conversations with the author of his biography ended up in the hands of Robert Hur, the special counsel who was appointed to look into allegations Biden improperly handled classified documents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Hur evaluated the files, and also spent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2024\/mar\/12\/biden-interview-transcripts-robert-hur\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">five hours<\/a> interviewing Biden himself, concluding in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2024\/feb\/08\/biden-special-counsel-report-key-takeaways\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">a 2024 report<\/a> to Congress that there was no criminal wrongdoing, but portraying the then 81-year-old president as \u201ca sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Biden withdrew from the 2024 election following repeated questioning of his age and mental competence, and endorsed Kamala Harris as the ultimately unsuccessful Democratic nominee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">His lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington DC, accuses the DoJ of an \u201cunwarranted invasion of President Biden\u2019s privacy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">It seeks to halt the department, which once fought to keep the transcripts and recordings secret, from handing them over to the Republican-controlled House judiciary committee and conservative Heritage Foundation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cEvery American, including a sitting or former vice-president, has a right to privacy in the personal conversations he has within his own home,\u201d his attorneys wrote of the conversations from 2016 and 2017 with Mark Zwonitzer, the author who worked with Biden on two memoirs .<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cAnd when the US Department of Justice obtains that private information through a criminal investigation, the Department bears a particular responsibility to protect it from disclosure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The recordings, made during and immediately after Biden served as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/barack-obama\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Barack Obama<\/a>\u2019s vice-president, were scrutinized by Hur, a Republican, as part of his investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In his report, Hur found Biden \u201cwillfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen\u201d, including \u201cclassified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan\u201d, but said it did not warrant criminal charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Biden welcomed the 345-page report, but pushed back on Hur\u2019s assertion he had a \u201csignificantly limited\u201d memory because he struggled to recall key events and facts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cMy memory is fine,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2024\/feb\/08\/biden-classified-documents-special-counsel\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">told a reporter<\/a> in February 2024, noting that his interview with Hur was immediately following the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. \u201cI was in the middle of handling an international crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Biden has separately fought the release of the audio of his interview with Hur, a portion of which was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/may\/17\/audio-biden-memory-lapses\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">leaked last year<\/a>. The Republican-controlled House in 2024 voted to hold Merrick Garland, Biden\u2019s attorney general, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/garland-contempt-congress-vote-biden-classified-documents-20f5e8f48cfd8390eb695d13079ca306\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">in contempt of Congress<\/a> for refusing to turn over that audio after the White House exerted executive privilege, shielding it from Congress.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">While Biden was adamant that he treated classified information seriously, the transcript shows that <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/biden-memory-age-special-counsel-report-doj-f4232bc8316e556ed467185b67c3e0a8\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">he was at times fuzzy about dates and details<\/a> and he said he was unfamiliar with the paper trail for some of the sensitive documents he handled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Republicans have argued Biden was being given a pass by his own justice department and that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/donaldtrump\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Donald Trump<\/a>, who was also under investigation for improperly taking classified documents and storing them at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort home, had been unfairly victimized by prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Trump was investigated by another special counsel, Jack Smith, and charged in a case that was ultimately dismissed by Aileen Cannon, a Florida judge he appointed. In February, Cannon <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/feb\/23\/judge-jack-smith-trump-classified-documents\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">blocked<\/a> the justice department from ever publishing Smith\u2019s report into the investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Democrats stressed Biden\u2019s cooperation in the investigation against him, and contrasted that with Smith\u2019s case against Trump, who was accused of refusing to return classified documents requested by the National Archives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><em>The Associated Press contributed to this report<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" class=\"dcr-qxqnsy\"><span class=\"dcr-1rq3vad\">Explore more on these topics<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-1dzx48f\">\n<ul class=\"dcr-1rrvs2w\">\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/joebiden\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">Joe Biden<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-politics\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">US politics<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/tone\/news\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">news<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-nu129i\"><a href=\"mailto:?subject=Biden%20sues%20justice%20department%20to%20block%20release%20of%20Hur%20interview%20audio&amp;body=https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/27\/biden-sues-justice-department-robert-hur?CMP=share_btn_url\" class=\"dcr-125qj9d\">Share<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-zhx6xs\"><a data-link-name=\"meta-syndication-article\" href=\"https:\/\/syndication.theguardian.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2026%2Fmay%2F27%2Fbiden-sues-justice-department-robert-hur&amp;type=article&amp;internalpagecode=us-news\/2026\/may\/27\/biden-sues-justice-department-robert-hur\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"Reuse this content\" class=\"dcr-14rjinq\">Reuse this content<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:right-column\" data-gu-name=\"right-column\" class=\"dcr-1h2hraq\">\n<div class=\"dcr-tn16h9\">\n<section class=\"dcr-1hko8ef\"><\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joe Biden speaks during a memorial service to celebrate the life of the civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}