by WorldTribune Staff, July 30, 2026 Non-AI Real World News
Joe Biden read classified documents “nearly verbatim” to the ghostwriter of his book, according to heavily redacted audio tapes released this week by the House Judiciary Committee.
The tapes, which were part of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation, show Biden read from classified notebook entries aloud to his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, at least three times while working on his 2017 memoir, “Promise Me, Dad.”
Hur’s 2024 report noted that Biden shared sensitive details from national security briefings and the White House Situation Room with Zwonitzer.
The audio tapes, from 70 hours of interviews, capture Biden telling Zwonitzer in February 2017 that he “just found all the classified stuff downstairs” while discussing a 2009 memo on Afghanistan.
On multiple occasions during the recordings, Biden can be heard acknowledging potential secrecy, telling the writer at one point: “Some of this may be classified, so be careful with it.”
In the audio tapes, which were recorded four years before his auto-pen presidency, Biden often sounded confused, struggled to remember facts, and lost his train of thought.
The heavily-redacted recordings of Biden working on his 2017 memoir with Zwonitzer were released Monday to the House Judiciary Committee and the Oversight Project nonprofit after a two-year-long court battle in which Biden and his legal team fought to keep the recordings from the public.
“We now know what has been long assumed: the auto-pen scandal extends far back beyond just when Joe Biden ‘ran’ for president from his basement,” Oversight Project President Mike Howell said in a statement.
On the tapes, Biden could be heard discovering classified material in real time as he leafed through papers with Zwonitzer nearby.
“The next thing I have here is, um, this is classified …” Biden says in another snippet.
In an Oct. 10, 2016, recording, Biden brags that he retained notes without anyone being aware.
“I have extensive notes over this period of time… They didn’t know I have this.”
Hur found that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” after leaving the vice presidency but refused to charge Biden because he would “likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
The Oversight Project argued that the extent of Biden’s disclosure of classified information is “much more egregious than previously disclosed” by Hur.
Joe Biden’s Delaware garage where box of documents was found. / Department of Justice
“At several points in the tapes, Biden references the information he is reviewing is likely classified, which is followed by significant audio redactions for classified information,” the group said in a statement. “This was not just once or twice, these classified redactions cover significant portions of the audio files released.
“The listener shouldn’t overlook the audio redactions because those redactions are intended to cover the disclosure of classified information.”
Oversight Project Vice President Jeff Clark noted that Biden “clearly gives away secret after secret to someone not authorized to hold such secrets.”
“And he did it all for personal and family profit to the tune of $8 million!” Clark continued, referencing a lucrative book deal Biden inked with his publisher.
“Americans want to see accountability. Now you know why Biden’s lawyers fought so hard to keep these tapes and transcripts out of the public’s watchful eye!” he added.
The documents were discovered at Biden’s Delaware home and in an office at his Washington think tank, the Penn Biden Center.
Some of the material was found in a damaged box in his garage. The Hur report identified documents originating from Biden’s time in the Senate, dating to the 1980s, and his vice presidential years, from 2009 to 2017.
Although Hur declined to prosecute Biden for illegally possessing and storing the classified documents, the Justice Department under Biden prosecuted President Donald Trump for allegedly taking and storing classified information at his Mar-a-Lago home after his first term in the White House.
In an unprecedented move, the FBI raided Trump’s residence in 2022. Special counsel Jack Smith charged the former president in 2023 with mishandling classified material. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case against Trump in 2024.
