Newly released Joe Biden recordings show him referring to classified information: Report

A number of audio recordings of former US President Joe Biden, which he had tried to keep private for several years, have now been released, CBS News reported Monday (local time).

The audio recordings, which are around 70 hours in total, were cited in a special counsel report in 2024, which claimed that the former President had kept a sizeable number of notes at his home which contained classified information.

CBS News, which got access to the recordings, reveals that Biden is heard in the tapes telling his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, “Some of this may be classified … So, be careful. I’m not sure … It’s not marked classified but —”

He is also heard saying at another point, “The next thing I have here is, um, this is classified …”

Zwonitzer was ghostwriting the book Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose when these recordings were made. However, there has never been any allegations about classified information ending up in the final published version of the book.

DoJ special counsel on Biden

Robert Hur, the Justice Department special counsel, had mentioned these recordings in a report he presented in February of 2024 regarding how Biden handled classified documents.

“Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” the report had then revealed, as per CBS News.

However, the report did not suggest prosecution of the former president. It stated, “We conclude that the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” adding, “Prosecution of Mr. Biden is also unwarranted based on our consideration of the aggravating and mitigating factors.”

The special counsel had also said about Biden’s conduct, that he “present[ed] serious risks to national security, given the vulnerability of extraordinarily sensitive information to loss or compromise to America’s adversaries…But addressing those risks when pursuing criminal charges, the only means available to this office, is not the proper remedy here.”

Hur also revealed in his report that Biden was “struggling to remember events,” and even showed “diminshed faculties” as well as having “painfully slow” conversations going back to 2016.

At one point he says, “Alright — what was I going to ask you? Something else… Uh… um. Oh gosh. I can’t think of anything else.”

When the report first came out Biden, as per the CBS News report, had told reporters, “I did not share classified information. I did not share it with my ghostwriter.” He also claimed that he did not know how boxes which contained classified materials were found in his garage.

CBS News also reports that Biden told Zwonitzer about his classified meetings as well, quoting from the recordings about “a big meeting with the CIA and everyone,” “a big meeting down in the Situation Room,” as well as “a long meeting where DOD brief … POTUS.”

He was also heard in a recording dating back to 16 February 2017, I just found all the classified stuff downstairs”. This was was cited as evidence by Hur when he claimed that Biden indeed had classified material in his rented Virginia home.