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The 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.
BIDEN’S FIGHT TO KEEP HUR INTERVIEW TAPES UNDER WRAPS SUFFERS FRESH COURT BLOW
President Joe Biden carries a milkshake while visiting Nantucket for the Thanksgiving holiday in 2023. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
The Justice Department obtained recordings of Biden’s 2016 and 2017 conversations with Mark Zwonitzer, his ghostwriter for upcoming 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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WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 19: United States Attorney Robert Hur speaks at a news conference about the indictment of Kevin Merrill, Jay Ledford, and Cameron Jezierski by a Maryland grand jury at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, on September 19, 2018 in Baltimore, MD. Authorities accuse Merrill, Ledford, and Jezierski of defrauding investors of more than $364 million through falsified bank statements and transfers and false sales agreements, according to the indictment. (Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images) (Getty)
The plaintiff, conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, 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.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Heritage Foundation for comment but did not hear back by time of publication.
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.
BIDEN SCORES TEMPORARY COURT VICTORY AS TRUMP-APPOINTED JUDGE DELAYS RELEASE OF HUR INVESTIGATION MATERIALS
Joe Biden speaks during the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Illinois (Kent NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty Images))
Hur’s report repeatedly referenced Biden’s recorded conversations with Zwonitzer and described some exchanges as “painfully slow.”
He said that 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 reelection for president.
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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.