Last month, a heavily redacted transcript of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview with Joe Biden’s ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, was released. The Justice Department has now admitted to discovering transcripts of Biden’s conversations with Zwonitzer that it previously claimed did not exist.
President Joe Biden had asserted executive privilege over the audio recordings of these conversations, but Republicans argue that this privilege is invalid since the transcript has already been made public. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has classified the audio tapes as “Top Secret” and secured them in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF).
The DOJ’s admission came in response to multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits, shortly after Biden announced he would withdraw from the 2024 presidential race. Politico reported that the DOJ informed a federal judge it had found these transcripts, which were integral to the recent investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents prior to his presidency.
Background on Mark Zwonitzer:
Special Counsel Robert Hur’s February report on the investigation of classified documents found that Biden “willfully retained” classified materials, but decided not to pursue charges. Hur noted that Biden had retained classified notebooks despite knowing he was not authorized to do so.
Zwonitzer, who was involved in documenting Biden’s thoughts, confirmed to the special counsel’s office that Biden had shared highly classified information with him and had even shown him where such materials were stored in his Wilmington garage. Zwonitzer stated that Biden had read classified passages verbatim to him on multiple occasions in 2017.
Despite these admissions, no charges were filed against Biden. Zwonitzer admitted to deleting the audio recordings of his interviews with Biden after Hur’s appointment as Special Counsel, but these recordings were later recovered. Zwonitzer was not charged for deleting the files.
According to the report, some recovered audio files were incomplete or had portions overwritten. Zwonitzer provided transcripts of these files, summarizing their content. However, the House Judiciary Committee recently voted to hold Zwonitzer in contempt of Congress for not complying with subpoenas for these documents. Chairman Jim Jordan emphasized the need for the audio recordings and transcripts.
