The Department of Justice (DOJ) has uncovered transcripts from an interview between President Joe Biden and his biographer, Mark Zwonitzer, which federal prosecutors previously claimed they did not possess. These transcripts are pertinent to DOJ Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into whether Biden violated the law by retaining classified documents at his Delaware residence and his former office at the Penn Biden Center, told Politico.
Special Counsel Hur concluded that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” but ultimately determined that “no criminal charges are warranted in this matter.”
The conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, has filed a case to make certain materials from Hur’s investigation public, including audio recordings of conversations between Biden and Zwonitzer. Initially, the DOJ stated it would process parts of the audio but did not own the transcripts. However, on Monday night, DOJ lawyer Cameron Silverberg revealed in a court filing that prosecutors had now found the transcripts.
“In the past few days, in the course of processing the portions of the Biden-Zwonitzer audio recordings that the parties agreed to…the Department located six electronic files, consisting of a total of 117 pages, that appeared to be verbatim transcripts of a small subset of the Biden-Zwonitzer audio recordings created for the [special counsel’s office] by a court-reporting service,” the filing stated, via Fox News.
The DOJ intended to consult “an individual with knowledge of the SCO files with whom the Department had previously consulted” who was out of office. Subsequently, they reached out to Hur for clarification about the nature of the transcripts. Hur confirmed that the files were indeed transcripts of a subset of the Biden-Zwonitzer audio recordings, created by a court-reporting service at the Special Counsel’s Office (SCO) request. These transcripts were referenced in the Hur Report but were not cited in any of the passages in the Heritage Foundation’s FOIA request.
Hur explained that in making the statements highlighted in the Heritage Foundation’s request, he generally relied on the original audio recordings. While Hur’s report cleared Biden of any criminal wrongdoing, it did raise concerns about his fitness for office. Hur noted that Biden’s “memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with our office in 2023.”
Hur further commented, “At trial, Mr. 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. Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt.”
As the Heritage Foundation continues its push for transparency, the release of these transcripts and audio recordings will likely shed more light on the investigation’s findings and Biden’s handling of classified materials post-vice presidency.