A federal judge on Friday denied former President Joe Biden’s attempt to block the release of dozens of hours of audio recordings he made while working on his memoir. 

The audio tapes were obtained by the Justice Department during its investigation into concerns that Biden mishandled classified materials. The Heritage Foundation initially filed a Freedom of Information Act request in April 2024 to obtain the conversations after the DOJ declined to press charges against the former president. When the Trump administration in February indicated its intent to reverse a Biden-era DOJ hold on the tapes, Biden retaliated with a lawsuit, arguing he holds “a right to privacy in the personal conversations he has within his own home.”