Biden loses bid to block highly ‘personal’ conversations with ghostwriter in 2016 and 2017

Joe Biden on Friday dropped a lawsuit in which he sought block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of his interviews with a memoir ghostwriter before the Delaware Democrat was elected president, paving the way for the material to be released to a Republican-led congressional committee.

Biden’s attorneys filed the notice of voluntary dismissal less than a week after a divided panel of appeals court judges rejected his bid to block the material’s release. Biden could have petitioned the Supreme Court to intervene or asked for a rehearing by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

In a 2-1 ruling on Monday, a three-judge panel from the circuit court found a “substantial” public interest in disclosing the material that Biden wants to keep under wraps. The panel had suspended its decision until Aug. 3 to allow more time for Biden to consider his appellate options.

Circuit Judge Florence Pan wrote a dissenting opinion in which she said Biden has shown a “substantial privacy interest” in keeping the material hidden. The appeal also was heard by D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Judge Gregory Katsas.

Pan was nominated to the court by Biden, a Democrat. Srinivasan was nominated by President Barack Obama, also a Democrat. Katsas was nominated by President Donald Trump, a Republican.

Mark Zwonitzer, who worked with Biden on two memoirs, 2007’s “Promises to Keep” and 2017’s “Promise Me, Dad,” interviewed him at his home in 2016 and 2017. Biden’s lawyers say the conversations were candid, personal and intended to remain private.

The recordings were obtained by special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Biden’s handling of classified documents from his time as a senator from Delaware and as Obama’s vice president. Republicans in Congress demanded the material after Hur declined to file charges against the then-president.

Biden sued and sought an injunction to prevent the Justice Department under Trump from releasing the recordings to Congress and the conservative Heritage Foundation. The department previously argued that the recordings were exempt from disclosure under public records law.

Biden appealed after U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump nominee, ruled in June that the public interest in the material outweighed whatever privacy rights Biden had.