Former President Joe Biden has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice to block the release of audio recordings connected to Special Counsel Robert Hur's classified documents probe, because apparently the man who spent four years telling us he had nothing to hide would now like to hide everything, please and thank you.
If those tapes were exculpatory, Biden would be selling them on vinyl at Barnes & Noble. Instead, he's lawyering up to make sure nobody ever hears them.
The lawsuit, filed in a Washington, D.C. court, asks a judge to declare the request for the materials "pretextual" and "invalid," and to permanently bar the DOJ from releasing the recordings. Permanently. Not "let's review this later." Not "let's redact the sensitive parts." Permanently, as in "take this to the grave."
The recordings in question stem from Biden's interviews with a ghostwriter during 2016 and 2017, which were used for his memoir published in 2017. Those same recordings became central to Hur's 2023 special counsel investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents. You remember that investigation — the one where Hur determined that Biden's memory lapses were so severe that proving willful mishandling would be nearly impossible. The "too senile to prosecute" defense.
The Heritage Foundation requested the materials, and the House Judiciary Committee had also sought access. The DOJ had reportedly planned to release the recordings by June 15. Biden's legal team decided that date was unacceptable and ran to court.
Let's be clear about what's happening here. A former president is suing his own successor's Justice Department to suppress evidence from an investigation that supposedly cleared him. Read that sentence again. If Hur's probe was the exoneration Biden's defenders claimed it was, these tapes should be a victory lap. Instead, they're apparently radioactive.
We all watched Biden shuffle through four years of press conferences where he couldn't remember which state he was in or whether his son was alive or dead. Hur's report referenced Biden discussing his decision to pursue the presidency during the period when his eldest son, Beau Biden, was battling brain cancer. Whatever is on those tapes, Biden's team has decided the political damage of the public hearing his actual words — in his actual voice — outweighs the cost of looking guilty.
Innocent people don't sue to suppress evidence. Guilty people with good lawyers do.
The DOJ hasn't commented on whether it will fight the lawsuit or fold. Given that this is Trump's DOJ, folding seems unlikely. As reported by Just The News reporter Misty Severi, the legal battle is just getting started.
So what's on those tapes, Joe? The country would love to know — and the harder you fight to keep them buried, the more we're going to want to hear them.
