A federal appeals court has rejected a request by Joe Biden to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of his interviews with a memoir ghostwriter before he was elected president. 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.
Background
The recordings were made in 2016 and 2017 by Mark Zwonitzer, who worked with Biden on two memoirs. Biden’s lawyers argue that the conversations were candid, personal, and intended to remain private. However, a divided three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that there is a ‘substantial’ public interest in disclosing the material that Biden wants to keep under wraps.
Judge Florence Pan, who was nominated by Biden, wrote a dissenting opinion, stating that Biden has shown a ‘substantial privacy interest’ in keeping the material hidden. The majority noted that redactions to the recordings would help protect Biden’s privacy, but ultimately concluded that any remaining incursion on personal privacy from disclosure of the now-redacted materials likely does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure.
Original reporting: Texarkana Gazette — read the source article.
