WASHINGTON – Former US President Joe Biden is suing the US Justice Department in an effort to block officials from sharing audio recordings and transcripts of interviews he gave for a memoir project with a conservative advocacy group and Republicans in Congress.
The extraordinary lawsuit, which pits a former US president against his successor’s administration, comes amid a long-running legal fight over a public records request for the materials by the Heritage Foundation.
Mr Biden on May 26 filed his own legal challenge to stop the disclosure, which is set to happen on June 15, according to his complaint.
The Justice Department under Mr Biden had fought disclosure of the recordings and transcripts, which were obtained by a former special counsel probing his handling of classified information.
No charges were brought.
The interviews were used by Mr Biden and his writing partner to develop his 2017 memoir.
In the latest lawsuit filed in federal district court in Washington, Mr Biden’s attorneys accused the Justice Department of taking a legal stance at odds with its longstanding positions about what materials are exempt from Freedom of Information Act requests.
The attorneys also claimed DOJ secured a “pretextual” request from the House Judiciary Committee for the records as an “end-run” around the Heritage Foundation’s pending litigation.
“The proposed disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of President Biden’s privacy,” his lawyers wrote. BLOOMBERG
