Federal Appeals Court Rules Against Biden's Bid to Block Ghostwriter Audio Release
The ruling tests the boundaries of former officeholders' privacy interests against statutory public-records obligations, with a final outcome pending an Aug. 3 deadline.
A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled on July 21, 2026, that former President Joe Biden's privacy claims do not outweigh what the court described as a 'substantial' public interest in releasing audio recordings and transcripts of interviews Biden conducted with his longtime ghostwriter, according to reporting by the New York Post citing the court's decision. The recordings were gathered during Special Counsel Robert Hur's investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents after he left the vice presidency.
The appellate panel denied Biden's motion to block the release of the material, which includes audio and written transcripts from interviews between Biden and his ghostwriter. The court's ruling did not use the word 'unlawful' in its public-interest balancing test; rather, it weighed Biden's asserted privacy interests against the public's right to access government investigative materials under applicable federal records law. The court's opinion — the full text of which is available through the federal PACER court filing system under the relevant docket — constitutes a majority ruling, with at least one dissenting judge, according to the same report.
To preserve Biden's ability to seek further review, the court suspended its decision until August 3, 2026, giving his legal team a window to appeal to the full appellate court or petition the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency stay. The Special Counsel's report on Biden's classified-documents handling was publicly released in February 2024 and is available on the Department of Justice website; however, the underlying audio recordings and ghostwriter interview transcripts were not released at that time and have been the subject of ongoing litigation.
Special Counsel Robert Hur was appointed under 28 C.F.R. § 600.1 and submitted his final report to Attorney General Merrick Garland in early 2024. Hur declined to recommend criminal charges against Biden, citing factors including Biden's age and memory, as stated in the publicly available DOJ report. The ghostwriter interviews were conducted as part of that investigation into documents found at Biden's Wilmington, Delaware, home and a Washington, D.C., office.
What remains unknown as of publication is the specific legal theory under which the appellate panel found public interest to be 'substantial,' the identity of the dissenting judge(s), and whether Biden's team will file a further appeal before the August 3 suspension expires. The full written opinion, once posted to PACER or the court's public docket, would answer those questions. It is also not yet known whether the Department of Justice intends to release the recordings immediately upon the suspension lifting, or whether additional administrative steps would be required.