Appeals Court Denies Biden Bid to Block Memoir Tapes

A federal appeals court has denied former President Joe Biden's request to block the release of audio recordings from interviews he conducted for his memoir, though the decision has been temporarily suspended. On Monday, July 20, 2026, a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against Biden's emergency bid for an injunction. The panel, however, stayed its opinion until August 3 to allow Biden time to consider a further appeal to the Supreme Court.

The 2-1 ruling centers on approximately 70 hours of recordings from 2016 and 2017 interviews between Biden and his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, conducted for Biden's 2017 memoir, "Promise Me, Dad." The recordings came into the possession of the Justice Department during an investigation by former special counsel Robert Hur into Biden's handling of classified documents after his vice presidency. The conservative Heritage Foundation has sought the materials through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

In the majority opinion, Circuit Judges Sri Srinivasan and Gregory Katsas found a substantial public interest in disclosure, noting the recordings could shed light on the...