Former President Joe Biden is in an uphill battle to stop the Justice Department from sharing recordings of him speaking to his ghostwriter in 2016 and 2017. The recordings, which may contain potentially embarrassing information, could be released to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee in the next three weeks unless a court steps in.
Background
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative organization, has been seeking the release of the recordings for years, believing they may show Biden being forgetful and struggling to remember things. The Justice Department, under the Trump administration, has changed its stance and is now willing to provide the recordings to the committee.
A federal trial-level judge has paused the release of the tapes for three weeks to allow an appellate court to weigh in. DC District Judge Dabney Friedrich has ruled that the Justice Department has the authority to decide whether to release the tapes, and that Biden’s privacy arguments are diminished by the publication of his memoir, which includes discussions of foreign policy and his decision not to run for president in 2016.
The recordings are part of an investigation by special counsel Robert Hur, who examined whether Biden illegally disclosed classified information in conversations with his ghostwriter. Hur’s report noted that Biden conversed in a way that was ‘painfully slow’ and revealed struggles to remember things or read his own notes.
Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
