Audio recordings in which Joe Biden refers to having classified material after leaving office as US vice-president have been released by Republicans in Congress, BBC News reported.
The recordings feature conversations between Biden and Mark Zwonitzer, the co-writer of his 2017 memoir, Promise Me, Dad. In one February 2017 recording, made a month after Biden left the White House, he is heard saying: "I just found all the classified stuff downstairs."
In another section of the more than two hours of audio released on Monday, Biden tells Zwonitzer: "The next thing I have here is, um, this is classified." In an October 2016 recording, while he was still vice-president, he says he had extensive notes from the period and adds: "They [the White House] didn't know I have this."
The recordings and transcripts were obtained by Special Counsel Robert Hur during a 2024 investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents. Hur found that Biden had improperly kept records but did not recommend criminal charges.
Hur said one reason for not pursuing charges was concern that a jury could view Biden as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory".
House Republicans and the conservative nonprofit Oversight Project had sued for the recordings as part of scrutiny of Biden's handling of the documents. During Biden's presidency from 2021 to 2025, the justice department declined to release the tapes. His personal lawyers later sued the department to keep them private, but dropped the case after legal defeats.
The released material includes significant redactions. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee said the redactions were intended to cover Biden's disclosure of classified information.
Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo criticised the release, describing it as "just the latest example of this Administration weaponizing the DOJ for political retribution" under President Donald Trump. Ducklo said Biden disagreed with the decision but respected the courts and the role of an independent judiciary.
Trump was separately charged with illegally retaining documents at his Florida home, but those charges were dropped after he returned to the White House.
