President Trump unleashed a blistering post on Truth Social early Wednesday after Joe Biden filed a surprise federal lawsuit aimed at burying audio recordings tied to a special counsel probe that once shook his 2024 reelection bid. “A Crooked Politician!!!” Trump fumed, reposting an article about the bombshell legal maneuver and reigniting one of the most personal feuds in modern American politics.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court on Monday, seeking to block the Justice Department from handing over recordings and transcripts of interviews Biden conducted with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer in 2016 and 2017, during the writing of his memoir “Promise Me, Dad.” The Justice Department is scheduled to release the materials on June 15 to the House Judiciary Committee and the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that has spent more than a year fighting to obtain them.
A Stunning Reversal at the DOJ
Biden’s filing accuses Trump’s Justice Department of abruptly reversing the government’s earlier legal position after Trump returned to office on Jan. 20, 2025. Under the Biden administration, the DOJ had vigorously fought against disclosure of the recordings, arguing in 2024 that the files were exempt from public records laws. The department denied the Heritage Foundation’s request that same year, when Biden was still in office.
That changed when Trump took power. His DOJ flipped the position, clearing the way for release. Biden’s attorneys say they still have not received a full explanation for the reversal.
“Every American, including a sitting or former Vice President, has a right to privacy in the personal conversations he has within his own home,” Biden’s legal team wrote, arguing that the disclosure would amount to “an unwarranted invasion of President Biden’s privacy.” The lawsuit also warns that releasing the recordings could cause financial and legal harm to the 81-year-old former president, and seeks to block both the audio and the transcripts.
The Hur Report That Shook 2024
The conversations, recorded inside Biden’s Delaware home, included deeply personal reflections — including on the illness and death of his eldest son, Beau Biden. They later became central evidence in Special Counsel Robert Hur’s yearlong investigation into Biden’s improper retention of classified documents from his time as a senator and vice president. Materials were recovered from Biden’s home and his office.
Hur’s 345-page report ultimately declined to recommend charges, concluding there was insufficient evidence Biden had “willfully” retained or disclosed national defense information. But the document detonated politically. Hur famously described Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” pointing to what he called “diminished faculties and faulty memory” during the interviews. He noted Biden was fuzzy on dates and details and said he was unfamiliar with the paper trail for some sensitive documents — even as Biden remained adamant that he had treated classified information seriously.
Biden and his allies fiercely contested the characterization, arguing the report strayed beyond its legal findings and unfairly amplified concerns about Biden’s age ahead of the 2024 election. “These assertions are not only misleading, they’re just plain wrong. My memory is fine,” Biden said in February 2024 after the report’s release.
Trump Cries Double Standard
The audio became a political flashpoint after Hur cited it in the 2024 report. Trump, who at the time was facing his own classified documents prosecution stemming from a 40-count federal indictment in 2023 over materials kept at his Mar-a-Lago estate, seized on Hur’s decision as proof of selective justice. Those charges against Trump were dropped in 2024 after he won the election.
Congress held then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt in 2024 for refusing to turn over the audio recordings. The Biden administration continued to withhold the materials through the end of Biden’s term, citing executive privilege and privacy concerns. The Heritage Foundation intensified its legal fight for the recordings throughout 2025, ultimately securing a favorable ruling earlier this year under the Trump Justice Department’s new leadership.
What Comes Next
The Justice Department has not commented on the filing, and it remains unclear whether a federal judge will grant an injunction to halt the June 15 release, even temporarily. The Heritage Foundation has been laser-focused on obtaining the records since Hur’s report raised questions about Biden’s cognitive sharpness — material that conservative researchers have signaled they intend to mine extensively.
For Trump, the lawsuit is political catnip. The president has long argued that he was prosecuted for conduct similar to Biden’s, and his post — now ricocheting across social media — signaled he intends to keep the contrast front and center. Vice President Vance has echoed similar themes in recent appearances, framing the documents saga as exhibit A in what the administration describes as a two-tiered justice system.
Biden, meanwhile, faces the prospect that his most candid, unguarded reflections — recorded in private with a trusted collaborator and touching on the rawest chapters of his family life — could soon be public property. His legal team is racing the clock, with less than three weeks remaining before the scheduled release. Whether a judge intervenes could determine not just the fate of the recordings, but whether the political wound Hur opened in 2024 reopens just in time for the 2026 midterms.