Audio recordings of Joe Biden admitting he kept classified documents and shared them with his ghostwriter were released Monday — and the same Justice Department that prosecuted Donald Trump over documents let Biden walk free.
The tapes, released by the Oversight Project after Biden's team dropped its legal fight to suppress them, capture the then-former vice president discussing classified materials with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer during 2016 and 2017 sessions for his memoir Promise Me, Dad. Biden at one point warns Zwonitzer, "Some of this may be classified so be careful with it," according to Breitbart. In another exchange, Biden says: "So this was, I early on, um, in '09 I just found all the classified stuff downstairs." He also states plainly: "The next thing I have here is, um, this is classified..."
The recordings align with what Special Counsel Robert Hur found in his 2024 investigation: that Biden "willfully" retained and shared classified information after leaving the vice presidency, including documents on military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and handwritten notes implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods. Hur declined to prosecute, famously calling Biden "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
The tapes bear that assessment out. Biden struggles repeatedly to recall names, dates, and sequences of events. "I should write the names down because I keep forgetting them," he says at one point. The Oversight Project's Mike Howell noted the recordings feature "so many pauses and 'ums' that it sounds like Biden is buffering like a dial-up Internet connection."
Breitbart highlighted that the sheer volume of audio redactions — covering "significant portions" of the files — confirms Biden was disclosing sensitive information on the recordings. The Guardian noted that no classified material ever appeared in the published book, but that's cold comfort when the former vice president was freely discussing it with a private citizen who held no security clearance.
A Biden spokesperson told CBS the conversations were private and "provided to the Department of Justice on the express condition they stay that way," calling the release "the latest example of this Administration weaponizing the DoJ for political retribution." The irony is thick: Biden's team is crying political weaponization after his own DOJ sent armed agents to Mar-a-Lago over the same category of conduct.
Trump's classified documents case was dismissed in 2024 on the grounds that Special Counsel Jack Smith was improperly appointed. Biden faced no charges at all — because, Hur decided, a jury would see a forgetful old man and acquit. One president gets raided; the other gets a sympathy note. That's the two-tiered system in plain view.
The question now isn't whether Biden mishandled classified information. He did, and he said so on tape. The question is whether any American without the right last name and the right party registration would get the same gentle treatment from federal prosecutors.
