Newly released audio recordings from 2017 show Joe Biden acknowledging he retained classified materials after leaving the vice presidency, with the former president telling his ghostwriter he discovered sensitive documents stored at his residence and warning him to handle certain information carefully.
Recordings Released After Two-Year Legal Battle
The House Judiciary Committee and the Oversight Project received heavily redacted audio tapes Monday documenting conversations between Biden and biographer Mark Zwonitzer during work on the 2017 memoir “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.” The roughly 70 hours of recordings formed a central component of former Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s retention of classified documents. In one segment, Biden states, “So this was, I early on, in ’09 I just found all the classified stuff downstairs.” He warns Zwonitzer at another point, “Some of this may be classified so be careful with it.”
The tapes capture Biden reading from notebooks containing sensitive national security and foreign policy information, according to Hur’s 2024 report. Biden describes potentially classified White House meetings, including sessions with the CIA and briefings in the Situation Room. In an October 2016 recording, Biden acknowledges keeping extensive notes without authorization, stating, “I have extensive notes over this period of time… They didn’t know I have this.” The recordings show Biden discovering classified material in real time while working with his ghostwriter.
Cognitive Concerns Raised by Conservative Group
The Oversight Project claimed the recordings demonstrate significant cognitive difficulties during the 2017 interviews, just months after Biden left the Obama administration. Oversight Project President Mike Howell characterized the conversations as containing “so many pauses and ‘ums’ that it sounds like Biden is buffering like a dial-up Internet connection.” The tapes include moments where Biden loses his train of thought, asking “Alright — what was I going to ask you? Something else… Uh… um. Oh gosh. I can’t think of anything else.” In another segment, he tells Zwonitzer he is confused while reviewing his notes.
Investigation Concluded Without Charges
Despite finding that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” after his vice presidency, Hur declined to recommend charges. The special counsel reasoned that Biden would “likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” The decision not to prosecute drew criticism from Republicans who argued it established a double standard for handling classified information. The release of these tapes provides the public with direct evidence of Biden’s own acknowledgment of possessing sensitive government documents outside authorized locations.
