'I just found all the classified stuff downstairs' - Biden to ghostwriter
Audio recordings of Joe Biden discussing classified documents with a ghostwriter in 2017 have been released by House Republicans. The tapes were obtained following legal battles and are being used to scrutinize Biden's handling of sensitive materials.
Why it matters
The release of these tapes fuels ongoing political debates regarding the handling of classified information by high-ranking US officials.
Image source, Getty Images By Max Matza Published 28 July 2026, 04:13 BST Updated 25 minutes ago Audio recordings that Joe Biden fought for years to keep private - in which he acknowledges possessing classified material after leaving office as US vice-president - have been released by Republicans in Congress.
The tapes contain interviews between Biden, now 83, and a ghostwriter working on his 2017 memoir, titled Promise Me, Dad.
"I just found all the classified stuff downstairs," Biden is heard saying at one point in the audio, recorded in February 2017, a month after he left the White House.
House Republicans and a conservative nonprofit, the Oversight Project, sued for the tapes, which were handed over for a 2024 justice department probe into Biden's handling of the records.
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