By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-07-24 22:56:40 | Updated at 2026-07-25 01:04:56
2 hours ago
Former President Joe Biden speaks in Chicago on April 15, 2025. Nam Y. Huh/AP Photo
Former President Joe Biden dropped his effort to block the release of audio recording and transcripts from conversations he had with a ghostwriter for his 2017 memoir, according to newly filed court documents on Friday.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) planned to release the materials, which the agency has said proves Biden’s “significant decline” in cognitive abilities as far back as 2016, to the House Judiciary Committee and conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, but the former president sued.
Few details were available in court records about why Biden dropped the effort on Friday, other than the notice of the “voluntary dismissal of this action without prejudice.”
The move follows a federal appeals court ruling on July 20 that upheld a previous judge’s decision to allow for the release of the materials.
The recordings and transcripts between Biden and his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, stemmed from their private conversations in the former president’s home between 2016 and 2017 for his memoir titled “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.”
Biden’s book includes details about why he decided to run for president in 2016 and his experience dealing with the death of his son, Beau, who passed away in 2015 from brain cancer.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
