Newly released Biden audio recordings include references to ‘classified’ material and struggles with memory

Audio clips released by the right-wing Oversight Project on Monday of former-President Joe Biden’s conversations with his biographer, Mark Lewis Zwonitzer, appears to support what former Special Counsel Robert Hur found in his 2024 report: Biden disclosed classified material, was forgetful and continued to possess classified material after leaving his post as vice president.

In the audio tapes, Biden can be heard cavalierly discussing the notes he kept from his time as vice president as he showed them to Zwonitzer. “They didn’t even know I had this,” Biden said while apparently showing the ghostwriter his old notes as reference points in their discussion of allegedly classified foreign policy matters during his VP days. The information is still redacted in the audio clips. The tapes were released by the Oversight Project, a branch of the conservative think-tank powerhouse Heritage Foundation, who had successfully sued the Justice Department to release them. Biden had fought the release to no avail, ultimately deciding to give up the battle by withdrawing his legal challenges on Monday. A representative for Biden declined to comment specifically on the release of the audio clips Monday, but spokesperson TJ Ducklo said in a statement last week: “President Biden’s conversations for a book a decade ago that discussed his late son are private, and were provided to the Department of Justice on the express condition they stay that way. Reversing course and making them public is just the latest example of this Administration weaponizing the DOJ for political retribution.”