A federal judge refused to keep former President Joe Biden’s recorded interviews with his ghostwriter under wraps, then froze her own ruling hours later to let an appeals court weigh in.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich denied Biden’s request for a preliminary injunction on June 19. The ruling cleared the Justice Department to release redacted audio and transcripts to the Heritage Foundation and the House Judiciary Committee, according to the court’s memorandum opinion. Friedrich found Biden unlikely to win his case and ruled that the department’s choice to release the files was not an abuse of discretion, the opinion states. She wrote that heavy redactions had shrunk his privacy stake, leaving material that no longer touched on family, illness or death.
“Biden has not identified any public harm that would arise absent an injunction in this case,” Friedrich wrote in the opinion. (RELATED: Biden Left Wandering On Stage At Obama Library Opening, Shouts For Granddaughter)
The reprieve came fast. Biden’s attorneys filed an emergency motion the same afternoon, and Friedrich granted a three-week pause so the D.C. Circuit could decide whether to step in, according to CBS News. His lawyers argued that handing over the recordings would trigger permanent damage, telling the court the disclosure “cannot be undone,” CBS reported.
A federal judge ruled that the Department of Justice can hand over redacted versions of former President Biden’s conversations with his ghostwriter to the conservative Heritage Foundation — and then issued a temporary stay to allow a potential appeal. https://t.co/v8eaUt3QXw
— ABC News (@ABC) June 20, 2026
The fight traces back to a Freedom of Information Act request the Heritage Foundation lodged in March 2024, seeking records behind Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s handling of classified documents, according to CBS. Hur declined to charge Biden but described his taped sessions with Mark Zwonitzer as “painfully slow, with Mr. Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries,” CBS reported.
The Biden-era Justice Department had fought to keep the files sealed under Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemptions before the Trump administration reversed that stance, according to CBS. A separate Biden lawsuit aimed at blocking the congressional handover remains undecided before another judge, ABC News reported. A spokesperson for Biden declined to comment on the ruling or the stay.