Newly released tapes of Joe Biden show him referring to classified information: Report | Today’s news
A number of audio recordings of former US President Joe Biden, which he tried to keep private for several years, have now been released, CBS News reported on Monday (local time).
The audio recordings, totaling about 70 hours, were cited in a 2024 special counsel report that alleged the former president kept a significant amount of notes at his home that contained classified information.
CBS News, which obtained access to the tapes, reveals that Biden can be heard on the tapes telling his ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer, “Some of this might be classified… So be careful. I’m not sure… It’s not marked classified, but—”
He is also heard saying at another point, “The other thing I have here is, um, this is secret…”
When these recordings were made, Zwonitzer was writing the book Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose. However, there were never any allegations that the classified information ended up in the final published version of the book.
Read also | Clayton, Trump’s nominee for chief of intelligence, declined to say that Biden had won the 2020 election
Justice Department Special Counsel to Biden
Robert Hur, the Justice Department’s special counsel, mentioned the tapes in a February 2024 report on Biden’s handling of classified documents.
“Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden intentionally withheld and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency while he was a private citizen,” the report revealed, according to CBS News.
However, the report did not suggest prosecuting the former president. It stated: “We conclude that the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” adding: “Mr. Biden’s criminal prosecution is also unwarranted based on our assessment of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances.”
The special counsel also said of Biden’s conduct that it “presents (poses) grave risks to national security, given the vulnerability of extremely sensitive information to loss or compromise to America’s adversaries… But addressing those risks through criminal charges, the only means available to this office, is not the right solution here.”
Hur also revealed in his report that Biden “struggled to remember events” and even showed “diminished abilities” as well as “painfully slow” conversations since 2016.
At one point he says, “Okay – what was I going to ask you? Something else… Uh… um. Oh god. I can’t think of anything else.”
When the news first broke, Biden told reporters, according to a CBS News report, “I didn’t share classified information. I didn’t share it with my ghostwriter.” He also claimed that he did not know how the boxes containing the classified materials were found in his garage.
Read also | ‘Worse than narcissism’: Joe Biden calls Trump a ‘loser’ Here’s why
CBS News also reports that Biden told Zwonitzer about his secret meetings as well, quoting from tapes about a “big meeting with the CIA and everybody,” “a big meeting down in the Situation Room,” as well as “a long meeting where the DOD short… POTUS.”
He was also heard on the February 16, 2017 tape, I just found all the classified stuff downstairs.” Hur cited this as evidence when he claimed that Biden did indeed have classified material in his rented home in Virginia.
