NEW<\/span>You can now listen to Fox News articles!\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Former President Joe Biden’s recordings from interviews with his memoir ghostwriter \u2014 obtained during special counsel Robert Hur’s classified documents investigation \u2014 have been released to the public.<\/p>\n After a months-long fight from Biden\u2019s attorneys to block the release of the tape, they abandoned their lawsuit calling for a dismissal Friday, in which a judge accepted Monday.<\/p>\n The plaintiff, Mike Howell formerly with conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and now at Oversight Project, has fought for more than two years to obtain the materials through FOIA requests, arguing that the public has an interest in reviewing the recordings and transcripts on which Hur based his decision.<\/p>\n BIDEN’S HUR INTERVIEW TAPES COULD NOW GO PUBLIC AFTER HIS ATTORNEYS WAVE WHITE FLAG<\/strong><\/p>\n Former President Biden was dogged throughout his term by rumors of his purported cognitive decline.<\/span> (Kevin Dietsch\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Oversight Project published hours of recordings from Biden’s 2016 and 2017 conversations with his “Promise Me, Dad” ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, in which the then-former vice president frequently pauses, speaks haltingly and struggles to recall events \u2014 reinforcing Special Counsel Robert Hur’s characterization in his report.<\/p>\n “Joe Biden didn\u2019t want these tapes to come out. But now they have \u2014 after two years of painful delay. There is no joy in Bidenville today. Robert Hur\u2019s and Merrick Garland\u2019s decision to give Biden a free pass for keeping and disclosing classified information must now be reexamined from top to bottom,” Oversight Project Vice President of Litigation Jeff Clark exclusively told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n The House Judiciary Committee announced there were 2 hours and 45 minutes of recordings released. <\/p>\n Hur investigated Biden\u2019s handling of classified documents dating from his time as vice president in the Obama administration and as a U.S. senator from Delaware. He declined to pursue criminal charges because he concluded prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Biden willfully retained or disclosed the material.<\/p>\n HUNTER BIDEN RESURFACES IN LA, REACTS TO QUESTIONS ABOUT BIDEN TAPES, UFO FILES<\/strong><\/p>\n US President Joe Biden speaks during a State of the Union address at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023.<\/span> (Nathan Howard\/Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In his report, Hur wrote that Biden\u2019s conversations were “painfully slow” and said Biden was “struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries.”<\/p>\n “Mr. Biden’s memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017 and in his interview with our office in 2023,” wrote Hur.<\/p>\n He also said, in shocking reasoning for the lack of prosecution, that Biden could appear to a jury as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” rather than an intentional violator of classified document laws.<\/p>\n The interview recordings show instances where Biden takes long pauses, forgets names, and can’t recall specific days. <\/p>\n Biden warned Zwonitzer while discussing a 2014 Situation Room meeting, “Some of this may be classified, so be careful,” and added, “I’m not sure. It isn’t marked classified, but….”<\/p>\n In one instance, on April 24, 2017,\u00a0Biden struggled to recall two economic advisers.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ll think of his name,” said Biden, and then, “I should write the names down because I\u00a0keep forgetting them.” A long pause\u00a0follows before Zwonitzer says Alan Krueger\u2019s name.<\/p>\n On the same day, Biden fails to recall where he was on a certain date, later remembering he was at a memorial for a fallen service member \u2013 and forgot his name.<\/p>\n “I think I went to that memorial service in Wilmington. It says (REDACTED) December the 4th, but I don’t — I know what this means. Memorial service — (REDACTED) gets names really f—ed up,” said Biden. “So it says memorial service for (REDACTED). I don’t think her name was (REDACTED). Or I forget (REDACTED).”<\/p>\n Zwonitzer responded, “Okay,” and Biden said he would “make a note of that too.”<\/p>\n CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/strong><\/p>\n Then-Sen. Joe Biden delivered a fiery speech in 1989 calling on the H.W. Bush administration to launch an “international strike force” on narco-terrorists.<\/span> (Cynthia Johnson\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n “But at any rate, back to — there was — I had a meeting with Ron Klain, and I don’t know when,” Biden added. <\/p>\n Biden also appeared to struggle in recalling a lunch with former United States Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers.<\/p>\n “When he, when he came to me \u2014 and I\u2019ll get the date. Remind me when did Summers come to me to have lunch to \u2014 it was when I was thinking about running.”<\/p>\n He later goes on to say, “Here\u2019s what happened, before I forget. Don\u2019t mind my train of thought. He also pledged to support me in 2016.”<\/p>\n Fox News Digital reached out to the Office of Joe Biden for comment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"Joe](\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1200\/675\/Joe-Biden-thinking.png?ve=1&tl=1\")
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