Former U.S. President Joe Biden filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the United States Department of Justice in an effort to block the release of roughly 70 hours of interview recordings that later became central to special counsel Robert Hur's classified documents investigation.
The legal action, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, escalates a long-running political and legal battle over access to recordings Biden made with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer while working on his 2017 memoir, Promise Me, Dad.
The recordings, captured in 2016 and 2017, became evidence during Hur's probe into Biden's handling of classified material after leaving the vice presidency. They are now being sought by the House Judiciary Committee and the conservative Heritage Foundation through Freedom of Information Act litigation.
Biden's attorneys argued in the filing that the Justice Department abruptly reversed its earlier position on disclosure after the return of President Donald Trump to office.
"In February 2026, without any formal explanation for its about-face, the Department notified President Biden of its intention to release the audio recordings and transcripts to the plaintiffs in the FOIA Action," the lawsuit states.
The legal challenge comes after Justice Department lawyers informed a federal court earlier this month that they intended to provide the materials - with redactions - to congressional investigators and outside plaintiffs by June 15 unless blocked by the judiciary.
The dispute revives one of the most politically sensitive investigations of Biden's presidency.
The classified documents controversy first erupted after sensitive government records were discovered at Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware, and at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in late 2022 and early 2023.
Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur as special counsel in January 2023 to determine whether Biden improperly retained classified material after serving as vice president under President Barack Obama.
Hur's investigation stretched for roughly a year and included interviews with 147 witnesses, including Biden himself. In February 2024, Hur released a lengthy report concluding that "Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen," but said prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges.
The issue became even more politically explosive after portions of Biden's interview with Hur were later published by Axios in May 2025. Republicans argued the recordings were necessary to fully evaluate Biden's responses and mental sharpness during questioning, while Biden allies accused critics of attempting to weaponize investigative material for political gain.
During Biden's presidency, the Justice Department repeatedly resisted Republican attempts to obtain the full recordings. Biden also asserted executive privilege in 2024 when House Republicans sought access to the audio files.
Now, Biden's legal team argues the department's decision to release the material under the Trump administration represents a dramatic policy shift with potentially far-reaching implications for presidential confidentiality and investigative records.
The case also unfolds against the backdrop of Trump's own classified documents controversy.
Federal prosecutors accused Trump of improperly retaining classified material at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office. The FBI searched the property in August 2022, leading to dozens of criminal charges tied to alleged mishandling and obstruction.
But in July 2024, a federal judge dismissed the charges against Trump after ruling that special counsel Jack Smith had been unlawfully appointed. Earlier this year, the same judge blocked the release of portions of Smith's investigative report involving classified documents.
