Biden Ghostwriter Faces Scrutiny Over Deleted Recordings in House Judiciary Probe

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), speaker designee, holds a press conference at the Capitol in Washington on Oct. 20, 2023. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 14 demanded that the ghostwriter of President Joe Biden’s memoir hand over any recordings and notes from his conversations during their collaboration.

In a letter sent via email, Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) formally asked Mark Zwonitzer to provide the committee with any remaining audio recordings and transcripts he has of conversations with President Biden.

Mr. Zwonitzer, the ghostwriter who helped President Biden write “Promise Me, Dad” and “Promises to Keep,” deleted some recordings and materials from his computer once he learned of the probe but was ultimately not charged.

The request comes in the wake of the release of special counsel Robert Hur’s 388-page report into President Biden’s alleged unlawful removal, willful retention, and disclosure of classified documents.

The materials include “notebooks containing Mr. Biden’s handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods.” These were used to help Mr. Zwonitzer put together the memoir.

President Biden condemned statements in the report about his poor memory and mental faculties, while also denying parts related to sharing classified information with his ghostwriter.

“I’ve seen the headlines since the report was released about my willful retention of documents. These assertions are not only misleading, they’re just plain wrong,” President Biden said at a press briefing following the release of the report.

“I did not share classified information. I did not share it,” the president said at the time, regarding his collaboration with Mr. Zwonitzer.

Biden Read Notes From Classified Meetings: Report

Mr. Jordan questioned the accuracy of the president’s denial in his letter to Mr. Zwonitzer, citing the special counsel’s report.

The special counsel “unequivocally” found that during “many of the interviews with his ghostwriter,” the president “read from his notebooks nearly verbatim, sometimes for an hour or more at a time,” Mr. Jordan wrote.

The special counsel said that President Biden shared passages dealing with classified information with Mr. Zwonitzer on three occasions. The notebooks were kept during his time in office as vice president.

U.S. Attorney Robert Hur speaks at a news conference at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Baltimore on Sept. 19, 2018. Zach Gibson/Getty Images

“Mr. Biden should have known that by reading his unfiltered notes about classified meetings in the Situation Room, he risked sharing classified information with his ghostwriter,“ Mr. Hur wrote in the report. ”But the evidence does not show that when Mr. Biden shared the specific passages with his ghostwriter, Mr. Biden knew the passages were classified and intended to share classified information.”

Citing the report, Mr. Jordan said the special counsel referenced “audio recordings” and “transcripts” of the ghostwriter’s conversations with President Biden related to the memoirs. The Ohio Republican said the president’s statements of denial “seemingly contradicted material facts” in the special counsel’s report.

He requested communications, contracts, payment records, audio recordings, and transcripts of conversations related to Mr. Zwonitzer’s ghostwriting work on President Biden’s memoirs. Additionally, the committee asked for materials referencing or relating to Mr. Hur’s investigation.

The letter also urged Mr. Zwonitzer to appear for a transcribed interview with the committee about the matter.

He was given a deadline of 5 p.m. on Feb. 23 by which to produce the requested documents and schedule the interview.

It’s unclear to what extent Mr. Zwonitzer is able to comply with the demand to hand over the material to the House committee.

According to the special counsel, the ghostwriter deleted the audio recordings from his computer once the investigation into the president was announced.

Mr. Hur said his office considered charging Mr. Zwonitzer with obstruction of justice for this. However, because the ghostwriter offered “plausible, innocent reasons” for his actions and has cooperated with investigators, it would be unlikely to “obtain a conviction.”

On Feb. 12, House Republicans on the Judiciary and two other powerful panels requested transcripts and tapes of President Biden’s interview with Mr. Hur’s office after his report found the president had “willfully” retained classified documents.

In the Feb. 12 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the chairmen of the GOP House committees asked for a “transcript and any other records of this interview, including, but not limited to, any recordings, notes, or summaries of the interview.”

House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.), and Mr. Jordan said the records are required for “investigatory purposes.”

This request was part of the Judiciary Committee’s “ongoing oversight of the Department’s commitment to impartial justice and its handling of the investigation and prosecution of President Biden’s presumptive opponent, Donald J. Trump, in the November 2024 presidential election,” according to the letter.