Biden recordings case could head to U.S. Supreme Court

Legal analysts and litigants celebrated a federal judge's decision to allow the release of audio recordings and transcripts between former President Joe Biden and a writer of his memoir. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling late Monday, said there was substantial public interest in the release of recordings and transcripts of conversations Biden had with Mark Zwonitzer, the man who wrote two of his memoirs. Biden has until Aug. 3 to prevent the release of documents at the U.S. Supreme Court. The audio, taken from 2016 and 2017, was obtained by special counsel Robert Hur as part of an investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents while vice president. Charges were ultimately never brought against Biden by the special counsel. "When a highly visible investigation of a prominent public figure ends in a decision not to charge, the public has a strong interest in evaluating 'whether the government had the evidence but nevertheless pulled their punches,'" judges on the Washington D.C. Appeals court wrote. Jeff Clark, a party in the case and vice president of litigation at the Oversight Project, hailed the appeals' court's decision. He said the former president and vice president's arguments against releasing the recordings were not appropriate. "The DC Circuit rejected Biden's mockworthy argument that he possessed a privacy interest in the sound of his own voice," Clark wrote on social media. "The guy was once president (as sad as that is) and had the largest bully pulpit in the world for crying out loud!" Rob Luther, a law professor at George Mason University, also celebrated the decision as a step toward transparency in the case. "The Biden White House's pledge to be the most transparent administration in history is about to have a great court-imposed opportunity to deliver on that promise," Luther wrote on social media. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, originally requested the transcripts through a Freedom of Information Act request. Kevin Roberts, president of Heritage, celebrated the decision. "Transparency is coming, not a moment too soon," Roberts wrote on social media. Biden's lawyers could file a petition to the Supreme Court to seek an injunction against the audio and transcript release.