RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 3 sourcesThe months-long legal battle over the release of former President Joe Biden's recordings from interviews with his memoir ghostwriter — obtained during special counsel Robert Hur's classified documents investigation — came to an end on Monday.
Biden’s attorneys filed a motion last week to drop their case blocking the release of the audio recordings and transcripts after fighting to keep the material under wraps, noting that Biden is now a private citizen and is not seeking public office.
Obama-appointed Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia accepted the voluntary dismissal.
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The Justice Department obtained recordings of Biden's 2016 and 2017 conversations with Mark Zwonitzer, his ghostwriter for the memoir "Promise Me, Dad." Hur’s team, meanwhile, prepared transcripts during its investigation into Biden’s handling of classified information.
Now, the Department of Justice can release the audio recordings and transcripts to the House Judiciary Committee after the Friday motion was accepted.
Hur investigated Biden’s handling of classified documents dating from his time as vice president in the Obama administration and as a U.S. senator from Delaware. He declined to pursue criminal charges because he concluded prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Biden willfully retained or disclosed the material.
He also said, in shocking reasoning for the lack of prosecution, that Biden could appear to a jury as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" rather than an intentional violator of classified document laws.
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The plaintiff, Mike Howell formerly with conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and now at Oversight Project, has fought for more than two years to obtain the materials through FOIA requests, arguing that the public has an interest in reviewing the recordings and transcripts on which Hur based his decision.
"We are looking forward to reviewing these tapes that Joe Biden and his administration were allowed to hide for too long. They should show his mental decline as far back as 2016/2017. Yet his Party ran him as President," said Oversight Project's Vice President for Litigation Jeff Clark in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.
A previous ruling favored Heritage after Biden’s attorneys filed an emergency request last week to block the release of the tapes .
"We conclude that any remaining incursion on personal privacy from disclosure of the now-redacted materials likely does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure," a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit wrote in its ruling.
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Hur's report repeatedly referenced Biden's recorded conversations with Zwonitzer and described some exchanges as "painfully slow."
He said Biden, at times, struggled to recall events and relay information, which further fueled scrutiny of Biden's cognitive abilities during a time when he was still running for re-election for president.
The Justice Department reversed its earlier position in February and said it intended to disclose redacted versions of the recordings and transcripts to the plaintiffs and the House Judiciary Committee.
Biden’s attorneys did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
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