Judge rejects Biden’s attempt to stop the release of transcripts of the special counsel’s investigation

A federal judge on Friday rejected former President Joe Biden’s attempt to block the Trump administration from releasing recordings Biden made with a ghostwriter for a conservative group.

US District Judge Dabney Friedrich found that the public interest in the materials outweighed any privacy rights Biden had.

The recordings were obtained by special counsel Robert Hoare during his investigation into whether Biden improperly kept secret documents while he was a senator and vice president. Republicans in Congress demanded this after Hoare refused to press charges against the then-President.

The Democratic Biden administration has refused to hand over the 2017 recordings and transcripts, prompting Republicans in Congress to hold the attorney general, Merrick Garland, in contempt.

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice authorized the release of these materials. That prompted Biden last month to file a lawsuit seeking to block the official release of a worker at the conservative Heritage Foundation who requested the records.

Biden objected to the release as an invasion of privacy, saying the recordings included discussion of sensitive personal matters such as the death of his eldest son, Beau Biden. But Friedrich found that the administration had revised that article.

The materials “contain no mention of highly sensitive topics such as illness or death, and do not mention any non-public persons, including members of the Biden family,” the judge wrote.

Biden’s representatives did not immediately comment, but asked Friedrich to withhold publication of the materials while she appeals her decision. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump, a Republican, nominated Friedrich in the 2017 election.