Former President Joe Biden’s (D) lawyers may try to block the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) release of his 2017 interactions with the ghostwriter who helped him produce the book in which he talked about the death of his son, Beau.
Fox News on Sunday cited a court filing wherein Assistant Attorney General Civil Division Brett Shumate wrote that the former president via his counsel advised DOJ officials he “intends to seek to intervene to prevent any such disclosures. The Department does not oppose intervention.”
The news surrounds redacted written transcripts and 70 hours of audio which the Heritage Foundation’s Mike Howell requested through the Freedom of Information Act.
In a social media post regarding that request, Howell said “These tapes belong to the American People. Why is the Autopen fighting @ItsYourGov to hide them?”
Tuesday is the deadline for Biden’s lawyers to respond to the DOJ’s release, but it could be delayed until June 15 if there is an objection before Tuesday.
The Fox article continued:
The interactions came between Biden and his ghostwriter for the 2017 book: “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.” The audio and transcript were obtained by special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents after the Obama administration ended, which included storing them in his garage and at the Penn Biden Center.
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“These tapes will further prove the massive lie regarding Biden’s fitness for office and the fact Biden revealed classified information,” Howell, president of Heritage’s Oversight Project, told Politico. “The shenanigans aren’t over: At the last possible second, and after every delay tactic possible, the autopen is objecting to the American People receiving transparency. “
The former president’s spokesperson, TJ Ducklo, said Biden had agreed to hand over the audiotapes of the conversations on the condition they would not be released publicly, then claimed what was happening is about “politics” not transparency.
In 2017, Biden was reportedly charging hundreds of dollars for signed copies of the book, according to Breitbart News. It was also reported in 2025 that Biden would receive a $10 million advance for his presidential memoir, and former First Lady Jill Biden recently announced she was going to publish a memoir about her time in the White House.
Per the recent Fox article, Shumate said in the filing, “The public deserves to hear the tapes and read the transcripts as redacted by President Donald J. Trump’s Department of Justice.”