Federal tapes and a special counsel’s report have exposed new details about classified documents found in President Biden’s possession, revealing recorded moments that confirm both the presence of secrets and the memory problems the prosecutor described.

At the end of 2022, classified government documents were found at Joe Biden’s house in Wilmington, Delaware, including some in the garage, and more turned up at a Washington think tank where he kept an office. Classified documents are kept secret because publishing them can put lives at risk, and taking them home can be a crime.

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to examine the situation, choosing Robert Hur and saying he would work “in an even-handed manner.” Hur ran the U.S. Attorney’s office in Maryland and was brought in so the Justice Department would not be the only body judging its own leader.

In February 2024 Hur declined to bring charges and laid out his reasoning in a written report, since the law requires prosecutors to explain such choices. He framed the central issue as intent, which often comes down to proving what was in the president’s head, and he described the subject as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

The president’s party spent two years calling that description a smear, but key evidence was kept under seal until recently: roughly seventy hours of recorded interviews Biden did with a ghostwriter in 2016 and 2017. The Justice Department fought for years to keep those tapes confidential, but the recordings were eventually released for public review.

The tapes exist because Biden was writing a memoir and hired a ghostwriter who taped their sessions the way many writers do. In those sessions Biden reads from old notebooks while the ghostwriter, who had no security clearance, listened; Biden warned at times that the material might be sensitive but kept reading, saying things like “I just found all the classified stuff downstairs” and “The next thing I have here is, um, this is classified,” and at one point, “Some of this may be classified. So, be careful.”

Hur noted three sessions in 2017 where Biden read classified entries nearly word for word, some of which remained classified when Hur wrote his report. Hur summed up the legal judgment bluntly with the sentence that the decision “cannot be justified.”

The night Hur’s report became public, a reporter asked Biden about sharing classified information with his writer, and Biden replied, “I did not share classified information,” followed by “Guarantee you, I did not.” When told the special counsel’s findings contradicted that claim, Biden said, “He did not say that.”

Hur had written directly in his report: “This evidence shows that Mr. Biden disclosed classified information to Zwonitzer, who was not authorized to receive it.” The audio captures hesitations and memory lapses too, with moments like “Alright, what was I going to ask you? Something else. Uh, um. Oh gosh.”

Biden himself set a public standard by calling another case “totally irresponsible” when materials were found unsecured at Donald Trump’s home. Ordinary people have faced prison for similar conduct: Asia Lavarello, a Defense Department employee, served three months in federal prison in 2022 for keeping her classified notes at home.

The White House tried to have the memory language removed from the report before it was public, with lawyers pressing the Justice Department to cut the passages. A senior career official at DOJ evaluated the wording and deemed it “neither gratuitous nor unduly prejudicial,” noting it explained “the President’s state of mind,” which Hur needed to address.

Vice President Kamala Harris called the report “clearly politically motivated” and “gratuitous,” arguing the country should expect “a higher level of integrity than what we saw.” The White House also inaccurately claimed Hur had asked Biden about his deceased son; in fact the one line Hur offered in that interview was, “Please just allow me to say for a moment, I am so terribly, terribly sorry for your loss.”

Hur later testified under oath before the House committee overseeing the department, where he faced sharp questions and personal attacks. When told he wrote the report to secure a judgeship or sanitize his reasoning, Hur answered, “What you are suggesting is that I shape, sanitize, omit portions of my reasoning for political reasons,” and added, “That did not happen, Congressman, that did not happen.”

The recordings were not turned over voluntarily; the Heritage Foundation sued under the Freedom of Information Act to force their release, and the Justice Department resisted. The government kept fighting until early 2026, but a federal appeals panel refused to keep the tapes sealed, saying the public has a strong interest in judging “whether the government had the evidence but nevertheless pulled its punches.”

Judge Florence Pan dissented, arguing the public interest in more material was “greatly reduced” because so much was already public, a position that assumes the report itself is fully reliable. On July 24 the administration agreed to lift the order sealing the tapes, and a White House spokesman called the release “weaponizing the DOJ for political retribution,” a charge that questions motive rather than the content of the recordings.

Some who attacked Hur later softened their tones. Xochitl Hinojosa said “they were lying to everybody,” and Tommy Vietor admitted the attacks on the report “weren’t totally fair,” adding “including by me.” Many prominent critics, however, have not retracted their earlier statements.

Hur wrote out his reasoning because the law requires a prosecutor to put such decisions on paper, and he stood by his conclusions. What remains is a public record: the report, the recordings, and the political responses, with no widespread corrections from those who denounced the special counsel. That unresolved mix of evidence and accusation is now plain for anyone to hear and judge.