Nearly 70 hours of audio recordings featuring former President Joe Biden discussing classified materials with his ghostwriter have been released following a two-year legal battle, renewing scrutiny over his handling of sensitive government documents.

The recordings, originally made during interviews for Biden’s 2017 memoir with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer, reportedly include Biden acknowledging that some of the material may have been classified. At one point, he is heard saying, “I found all the classified stuff downstairs.”

The recordings were made public after the Oversight Project won a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Biden’s legal team had sought to keep the recordings sealed, but a federal court ordered their release.

The audio formed part of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s 2024 investigation into Biden’s retention of classified documents. Hur concluded that while Biden improperly retained classified materials from his time as vice president, criminal charges were not warranted, writing that a jury would likely view him as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

A spokesman for Biden criticized the release, calling it a political misuse of the Justice Department and arguing that the private conversations, recorded for a memoir about Biden’s late son Beau, should have remained confidential.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)