Joe Biden looked into the camera and called Donald Trump "totally irresponsible" for mishandling classified documents.
That was before the tapes.
Now America can hear Biden on audio telling his ghostwriter exactly where the classified documents were – downstairs – and admitting he didn't want to give them back.
Biden's Own Voice Blows Up His Story
The recordings – released after more than two years of litigation by the Oversight Project and the Heritage Foundation – capture Biden working through material for his 2017 memoir Promise Me, Dad with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer.
He used classified documents to write it.
"Some of this may be classified so be careful with it," Biden warns Zwonitzer at one point on the tapes.
In another exchange, Biden says he "just found all the classified stuff downstairs."
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In yet another, he narrates directly from his notes: "The next thing I have here is, um, this is classified."
House Judiciary Committee Republicans drew the obvious conclusion: "Biden knew he was sharing classified information with his ghostwriter."
The transcripts released alongside the audio are heavily redacted – the silences themselves tell the story.
"The listener shouldn't overlook the audio redactions because those redactions are intended to cover the disclosure of classified information," the Oversight Project said in a statement. "The silence of the redactions loudly demonstrates that Biden knowingly and willfully disclosed classified information to his ghostwriter."
Oversight Project President Mike Howell had his own take: "These tapes have so many pauses and 'ums' that it sounds like Biden is buffering like a dial-up Internet connection."
Democrats Protected a Man Who Hid This From You
General David Petraeus – American hero, decorated commander, CIA director – pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and received probation.
His crime: letting his biographer read his classified diaries at home.
Biden did the same thing.
He read classified national security documents to a ghostwriter – nearly verbatim, according to Special Counsel Robert Hur, "sometimes for an hour or more at a time" – then pocketed $8 million from the resulting book.
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Hur declined to prosecute Biden, calling him "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
That characterization looked generous even in 2024.
It looks like a cover-up now.
The tapes reveal a man who knew exactly what he had downstairs – who admitted he "didn't want to turn them in" – and who actively shared that material with an unauthorized civilian for personal profit.
Zwonitzer, for his part, deleted the recordings the moment he learned a special counsel had been appointed.
Jim Jordan confronted Hur directly about that in a 2024 hearing.
"He slid those files into his recycle bin," Jordan said.
Hur confirmed it: "Correct."
The very man who helped Biden produce that memoir tried to destroy the evidence.
The Man Who Lectured America on Classified Documents Had Them in His Garage
Democrats spent three years demanding prosecutions, holding hearings, and lecturing America about the rule of law.
The entire time, these tapes existed.
Biden knew they existed – his legal team was fighting to suppress them in court, right up until they dropped the challenge this week.
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Some of the classified material Biden retained dated to his Senate years in the 1980s.
He took it from a secure Capitol room.
He had no authority to declassify any of it – only presidents can do that, and Biden was never president when he removed this material.
He kept it in his garage in Delaware, in a box, next to his Corvette.
Then he read it to a ghostwriter and cashed an $8 million check.
Robert Hur looked at all of this in 2024 and passed.
The American people are looking at it now – in Biden's own voice – and they can make their own call.
Sources:
- Hannah Knudsen, "Audio: Joe Biden Told Ghostwriter He Kept Classified Docs in His Home — Years Before His 2020 Campaign," Breitbart News, July 28, 2026.
- "Oversight Project Releases Recordings of Biden Interviews with Ghostwriter," The Oversight Project, July 27, 2026.
- "Biden Knew: Audio Tapes Reveal He Talked of Disclosing Classified Material for Lucrative Book Deal," The Washington Times, July 28, 2026.
- Brooke Singman, "House Judiciary Subpoenas Biden Ghostwriter Amid Classified Records Investigation," Fox News, March 22, 2024.
- Staff, "Special Counsel Blisters Joe Biden for Memory, Conduct in Classified Documents Scandal," Breitbart News, February 8, 2024.