Former President Joe Biden filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Department of Justice seeking to prevent the release of audio recordings and transcripts from interviews connected to his memoir and later examined during a special counsel investigation into his handling of classified documents after serving as vice president.

The legal challenge follows Biden’s intervention in a separate lawsuit filed by the conservative Heritage Foundation, which sought records from former special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The disputed recordings and transcripts were created during interviews Biden conducted with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer while working on his 2017 memoir, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope.

Federal investigators later obtained the materials as part of Hur’s classified documents probe, which concluded in February 2024. The investigation found that Biden had “willfully retained and disclosed” classified information but ultimately recommended against criminal charges.

In the new lawsuit, Biden argues that the recordings and transcripts should remain private and accuses the Justice Department of improperly attempting to release sensitive personal materials to congressional Republicans and the Heritage Foundation.

“President Biden — like every American — has a right to privacy in personal conversations he had within his own home,” the lawsuit states. “That is particularly true here, where the Department obtained this information through a criminal investigation.”

The filing seeks to strengthen Biden’s effort to block disclosure of the records, citing both privacy protections and allegations that the DOJ is acting unlawfully in pursuing their release.